Health Care Disparities Increase Among Latinos

The annual National Healthcare Disparities Report and the National Healthcare Quality Report were released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ finds that 59% of disparity measures were widening for Latinos, while 41% were decreasing. These reports used data mostly from 2002 and 2003 that examined disparities in 46 different health care measures, along with six categories of access to care. AHRQ reported that in five out of six categories of access to care, disparities increased for Latinos. Those disparities narrowed in all categories for blacks, Asians and American Indians.

Both reports are available online, National Healthcare Disparities Report at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr05/nhdr05.pdf and National Healthcare Quality Report at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhqr05/nhqr05.pdf