NAACP Supports Efforts to Further Disaggregate Healthcare Data by Race and Ethnicity

WHEREAS, statistics reveal persistent racial, ethnic, language and gender disparities in the quality of health care received by patients; and

WHEREAS, black men and women are more likely to die from heart disease than any other racial/ethnic group, and blacks are three times more likely to die from asthma than whites. And black women are more than twice as likely to die from cervical cancer as white women; and

WHEREAS, women who are having a heart attack are 39 percent more likely to be incorrectly diagnosed than men; and

WHEREAS, Medicare beneficiaries with limited English skills are less likely to receive cancer screening services, such as mammograms, than those who speak English; and

WHEREAS, research shows improvements in the quality of care received by all patients when there is accurate collection and reporting of racial, ethnic, and language data. Specifically, a recent initiative focused on reducing disparities in cardiac care indicated that when hospitals collected patient race, ethnicity, and language data and reported quality measures by these characteristics, they closed gaps in care and improved quality overall;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP supports efforts to ensure the accurate collection and reporting of data by health care providers, programs, and plans about patients and the care they receive broken down by race and ethnicity.