Health Disparities

Gary G. Bennett

In 1985, Margaret Heckler, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services at the time, released the Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health , which documented striking disparities in mortality rates for cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, unintentional injury, liver diseases, and infant mortality for ethnic minority populations. Thirteen years later in 1998, then President Bill Clinton issued an ambitious challenge in a radio address to the nation when he suggested that disparities in health status should be eliminated by the year 2010. The president's call to action was motivated by the frequent finding of persistent ethnic disparities in rates of mortality and morbidity among nearly all of the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. In its response, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) undertook development of a strategic plan designed to guide research that would address the problem. Disparities were defined ...

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