Racial and ethnic health disparities are increasing in Missouri. A number of state healthcare leaders gathered Tuesday on MU's campus to discuss the issue, and are saying not enough is being done to address the disturbing trend.

Missouri could receive billions from the White House's stimulus package, but state leaders are divided on how and when the money will be spent, if at all.

Gov. Jay Nixon released almost $13 million in state money Friday for two community health centers that serve the poor in St. Louis and Kansas City.

Even though they have no health insurance, 20,000 families in Taney County could qualify to see a doctor this year.

One in four Americans said in a survey that someone in the family put off needed health care in the past year because of cost, including 16 percent who postponed surgery or a doctor's visit for chronic illness.

President Obama plans to begin paying for a healthcare overhaul with $634 billion in new taxes on wealthy Americans and by changing the way the government pays for some health services.

Congress has just given a big assist to millions of jobless Americans facing a tough decision: Do they reach into their wallet to continue health insurance coverage with their old employer or not?

Most people think of Medicaid as the federal government's health plan for low-income Americans: Medicare covers seniors, goes the conventional wisdom, while Medicaid covers the poor. But that isn't really how it works.

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Disparities exist in the access, quality, and timeliness of health care services for racial and ethnic minority groups in Missouri.  Ultimately, these disparities result in higher rates of disease and death for minority communities.

To better understand Missouri’s health disparities, the Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) engaged the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to provide data about Missouri’s African American and Hispanic populations in a set of data books.  MFH published a similar set of data books in 2004 and 2005, respectively.   Where possible, the current reports compare the new data to previous statistics to illustrate where progress has been made and what challenges may lie ahead.  Some data highlights include:

• 34.1 percent of Hispanics are uninsured, which is higher than the 20.5 percent of African Americans and 10.8 percent of whites without health insurance;
• Heart disease and cancer remain the leading causes of death for Hispanic, African Americans, and white Missourians;
• The Hispanic death rate due to HIV/AIDS in Missouri is almost 3 times the rate of whites;
• The African American death rate due to HIV/AIDS is almost 3 times as high as the Hispanic rate – nearly 6 times higher than the rate of whites; and
• The African American infant death rate has been twice as high as the white rate over the last 10 years.

The updated publications were released in Columbia on Tuesday, February 24, at a conference co-hosted by MFH and the University of Missouri’s Center for Health Policy. 

“It is our hope that these data books expand the understanding of health disparities in our state and provide a sound basis for programs seeking to reduce health disparities in Missouri,” said Ryan Barker, MFH Policy Analyst.  Barker and other conference speakers engaged the nearly 100 conference participants in reviewing the latest data, investigating trends, and discussing national, state, and local efforts to reduce health disparities. 

“As our policymakers address the challenges in Missouri’s health care system, we hope that they will review all the information we have provided and use it as a resource to eliminate the health disparities that exist in our state,” added Barker.

Read the reports:

• 2009 African American Data Book
• 2009 Hispanic Data Book

LINK: http://www.mffh.org/policy_healthdisp.html