An intelligent discussion of "racial health disparities" would look at comparative data on income and employment, education, family structure, diet, substance abuse, smoking, incarceration rates, and - less quantifiable, but of paramount importance - the role of the individual. Predictably, though, such factors are almost completely ignored in a front-page local section story in the Seattle Times on Washington state's first "Diversity Health Summit" today in Sea-Tac. Except for a throw-away reference near the end to income and geography. Instead, what we get - you're just not gonna believe this, I know - is that It's Whitey's Fault.
...in general, minorities die from disease more often than white people. The reasons are wide-ranging, health-care providers say: from institutional racism and a lack of affordable health care to a poor understanding of different cultures and fear by some minorities that they will not be treated with respect.Those facts and others have driven the state's policy makers, health-care providers and community activists to hold the state's first Diversity Health Summit today in SeaTac to discuss ideas for reducing racial health disparities. It will feature workshops on everything from promoting diversity in the health-care work force to cancer screening in communities of color. Gov. Christine Gregoire is expected to attend. The summit will be an inspiring show of unity, say activists and health-care providers.
Actually, the summit is a dispiriting show of the public-employee-union-driven agenda to preserve the Clientized State so that social service workers and administrators who couldn't remotely hack it in the private sector can feel virtuous, put their kids through college, buy the requisite vacation cottage on Whidbey Island, and retire on comfy pensions.
In a table appended to the story, several interesting patterns become evident. Blacks rank highest in (state Health Dept.) mortality rates per 100,000 for five of the six diseases listed: diabetes, lung cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke. And except for invasive cervical cancer, Asians rank lowest or second-to-lowest in mortality from the listed diseases. Interestingly, whites seem to be having a few problems of their own, according to the state data, ranking higher in mortality from lung and breast cancer than Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans; and higher than Hispanics and Asians for heart disease and stroke.
So, one minority group does very poorly, another does well, and two other minority groups show mixed results. Whites obviously have their problems too, outcome-wise. And this demonstrates "institutional racism" and cultural insensitivity?
This "summit" is just a set-up. Coming very soon, I promise: Democrat-sponsored state legislation mandating "cultural competency" training for doctors and nurses.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at September 30, 2005 09:57 AM | Email ThisOne of the guys who got into med school with a lower score than Allan Bakke later had his license pulled because he was so incompetent as a surgeon that one or two of his patients undergoing simple plastic surgery bled to death.
The only kind of competency I want medical personnel screened for is medical competency. Anything that dilutes that -- whether in the name of racial balance, gender balance, political balance, left-hander balance or Husky-Coug balance -- in that it detracts from the only criterion that should count, is literally murder.
Posted by: TB on September 30, 2005 11:26 AMAll hail the diversity industry. Everything causes everything. Or is it just bad Feng Shui?
This momentous 'summit' is held at a time when SEA should be thinking about civil defense, homeland security and a host of other REAL imminent issues in place of a kvetch session of finger pointing designed to make up for a lack of citizens' personal responsibilities.
Let's hear Claire's comments on this one.
Posted by: Amused by liberal communists on September 30, 2005 11:51 AMWhat these hand wringers should do is go to Harborview for a week or so to observe what really goes on. I am sure these logic impaired individuals would be absolutely stunned at what goes on. Hats off to the good people at Harborview who have to deal with such a difficult patient population and a bureaucracy that encorages it.
When are these dingbats going to realize PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY is what needs to be emphasized?!?!?!? Oh, wait. .we can't do that because then you would find out there are those who do not want to be responsible no matter what the consequences.
Posted by: Burdabee on September 30, 2005 12:10 PMTAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIVES, PEOPLE!
Posted by: Libertarian on September 30, 2005 01:33 PMABSOLUTELY NOTHING --
Posted by: Bill on September 30, 2005 02:49 PMSocialism = Communal ownership of the means of production. Many, but only small, differential outcomes tolerated.
Democratism = Socialism lite. Means of production privately owned, but heavily regulated and taxed. Larger differential outcomes tolerated.
Posted by: Brad on September 30, 2005 03:52 PMFocussing on important things/issues would only reveal what hollow excuses for "leaders" they really are.
Sorry - reality bites!
igor
Posted by: igor on September 30, 2005 07:33 PMYour ignorance of this issue is exceeded only by the ignorance and irrelevance of the comments in this thread. Things they are covering at the conference include preventive care, and early screening, not a whole lot of "blame whitey" about that.
There are even parts of conference that are discussing the role of individuals in the outcome of their own health, through early engagement and positive choices, being covered.
Perhaps your distress is caused by a guilty conscience. Whether or not you choose to admit it, minorities do have a lower level of access to quality healthcare and statistics reflect that. I won't turn this into a discussion about overall lack of access, since that is might not be construed as "local politics."
And yes "cultural sensitivity" is a core competency for health care workers, at least those who are involved in direct care. The interection between doctors and patients is based on a relationship. In order for a doctor to provide good care s/he needs to understand things about the cultural background of a patient to know if there are things that will help or prevent them from developing a working relationship. Simple as that.
Posted by: BlueDonkee on September 30, 2005 07:58 PMThe single most important lesson I've learned in my adult life is that, the more liberals talk, the more they reveal how little they know about any of the crap they pontificate about ;'}
Posted by: alphabet soup on September 30, 2005 09:15 PMJust a series of observations from medical professionals, private and public, about a significant public health issue. But who am I to tell you to let facts get in the way of your flogging the old multicultural buggaboo effigy?
Why should the folks that gave us the Southern Strategy, Willie Horton, and Jesse Helms ever relinquish the gift that keeps on giving?
Posted by: bartelby on September 30, 2005 09:54 PMAs one who took part in the free clinic health system many years ago, the care is there if you get off your duff to go get it. You may have to wait longer to see the doctor or nurse, but they are available.
It is far easier to point fingers and implement more government programs than to look at what the real problems are. For example, the article did not mention how many illegals are receiving medical services or how many unconscious drunks receive CAT scans in Seattle, let alone in the rest of the state. There are only so many dollars and resources to go around, no matter how much wishful thinking you do.
Posted by: Burdabee on September 30, 2005 09:59 PMWhen you have some who makes a series of poor decisions.
Not getting a eduction.
Not getting your a** out of bed to go to work every day.
Getting or getting someone pregnant without a commitment (i.e. marriage).
Drinking
Drugs
Diet
Health choices
etc...
Decision making or lack thereof is taught by parents. So it is generational.
It is all related, you don't see very many 14 year girls who have a goal of being a doctor getting pregnant, it would get in the way of the goal.
Part of good decision making is learning from bad ones.
You sleep in and are late for work.
You get fired.
You go hungry.
The smart ones learn. Go work, don't get fired, won't go hungry.
The welfare state removes the negative consequences of bad decisions.
Sleep in and get fired. Go to the welfare office and get food stamps. Don't have to work and still get to eat, not a bad gig.
Someone who makes good decisions becomes self confident. A self confident person doesn't need a doctor, nurse, waitress or clerk to be culturally sensitive.
Some one is self confident above all doesn't need gov't to make decisions or provide the necessity of daily living.
Which is why leftist pinheads like bluedonkee hate the idea and all of it's ramifications.
And then these Ivy-League milquetoast white trash bastards have the unmitigated and unfathomable gall to accuse the white man (read, "Republicans") of keeping the black man down. What a bunch of slack-jawed, mouth-breathin', empty-headed, knuckle-draggin' grab-asstic sh*theels liberals are.
And why the hell have we not done something to shut these idiots up? Doesn't anyone have the testicular fortitude to stand up against these carpetbaggers? Anyone? Volunteers? Or is this just another town full of people who just talk and consider themselves brave just for the talking?
Anger without positive action is worthless. The minute enough of us stand up and shine the light on these cockroaches, they'll run. Who's got the matches? Anyone?
Posted by: ERNurse on September 30, 2005 10:48 PMAlphabet - use a few of those letters to say something useful.
Dr. K - Actually, part of the access problem we see in Washington at the state level stems from budget shortfalls in the early part of the decade aggrevated by the Federal tax cuts in 2001. That year Washington had a 2.6 billion dollar shortfall, that among other things, gutted the state's basic health plan. One of the better things Gov. Gregiore has done is restore the basic health coverage for 45,000 poor children who lost it in 2001.
jcm - Self reliance is great, but things happen to people all of the time that they have no control over. I'm all for people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, but it can be a tough thing to do if you don't have any boots. Our government certainly can provide a basic safety net for people's most rudimentary needs as they get on their feet, it is basic human kindness. We can't guarantee equal outcome, but we must come as close as we can to providing equal opportunity and access.
ERnurse - Have you thought about anger management training? The most racist thing I've heard lately came from Gamblin' Bill Bennett, with his witty remark about aborting all of the black babies to drop the crime rate, what a genius. I don't suppose there's any chance he'll ever be anything but a republican.
Posted by: BlueDonkee on October 1, 2005 12:16 AMWhen you have a community that encourages teen pregnancies, scoffs at education, and glorifies bad lifestyle choices, another government program is not going to fix that. The government already spends billions of dollars providing access and opportunity. However throwing money at the problem doesn't make it go away.
The Seattle schools have one of the highest per student funding rates but some of the lowest achievement. There are programs that offer job training to get people into the workforce, but this is not for jobs that start at 6 figures. FareStart only has about a 40% completion rate for its students because showing up regularly, on time, and hygenically acceptable is too much effort for those who eventually drop out of the program.
There are ways to get low cost health care but you may not have as many choices as someone who has a job and insurance. If the care wasn't as good, the lawyers would be having a field day in court.
Bill Bennet used an unfortunate example,but what he said was taken out of context. Heaven forbid you actually look into the facts of a situation. You conveniently forgot to mention the part where he says that such a thing would be morally reprehensible.
Oh, but wait, actually nothing does get done.
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on October 1, 2005 01:34 AMBennett's comments were taken way out of context. Have you actually listened to the whole call he took? A caller was saying that we should get rid of abortion, because that would cure our Social Security problems, as all those aborted children would grow up to become productive citizens.
Bennett pointed out that the caller had no way of knowing that, and said that it was a lousy arguement and could go both ways. He pointed out to a part of the book "Freakenomics" that makes a correlation between an increase in abortion rates and a drop in crime rates. He then pointed oit that if you aborted all black babies, the crime rate would drop... it would be a ridiculas and morally reprehensible thing to do, but the crime rate would go down.
His point was never that we should abort black babies, but that the arguement that eliminating abortion as a cure to social ills was a weak arguement, as it could be argued that it also solved social ills. He was simply giving an absurd example to show what a lousy argument it was.
Posted by: Mike H on October 1, 2005 06:44 AMSUSTAINABLE MEDICINE + SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT = DUTY TO DIE
by Dr. Madeleine Cosman, Ph.D., JD.
"Sustainable Development esteems the planet's intrinsically valuable environment. In that bio-diverse environment human beings are a dangerous, capricious burden. In the Agenda 21 worldview, people, especially rich intelligent people, consume too much and they make too many of themselves."
If you search through the article for "health disparities" we are pointed towards a United Nations creation called, "Sustainable Medicine":
Sustainable Development is a private property land grab. It is justified in the name of global equity, overcoming economic disparities, and assuring global integrity of the environment. Sustainable Medicine is a body grab. It is justified in the name of achieving global medical equity, overcoming health disparities, and assuring an enduring global environment free of too many people.
Sustainable Medicine makes decisions through visioning councils that determine what shall be done or not done to each body in its group in its native habitat. Sustainable Medicine experts do not refer to citizens in sovereign nations but to "humans" in their "settlements."
Eventually, if you search long enough, you’ll find yourself reading, "SOCIAL ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". It can be found on the United Nations web site (under Agenda 21) here.
The section that I believe is directly related to your post can be found here:
Decision-Making: Strategies, Policies and Plans
The Health People 2000 Plan, developed by the US Department of Health and Human Services since UNCED, links national health objectives through three goals:
1. increase the span of healthy life for Americans,
2. reduce health disparities among Americans, and
3. achieve access to preventive services for all Americans.
I’m sure there’s more to this story than what we have here, but it’ll get you started if you're interested in digging deeper.
Posted by: Don Bangert on October 1, 2005 12:38 PMthe democrat party has become a totally unamerican organization completely infiltrated by the bolshevics -- pushing their rotten "communism light" known as socialism -- with the poverty pimps and other fellow travelers herding the poor and ill-educated like a pied piper over the cliffs and/or up to the kool ade vat -- after 40 years of the war on poverty -- some say - "poverty won" -- NO NO NO - the bolshevics were winning -- they have stupidified all levels of the education system and were gaining strength in their target constituents -- hopefully it has developed too slowly and the majority seems?? to be catching on - which has the lefties in a frenzied tailspin
If you're are not responsible, you are going give that responsibility to someone else. When some one is is responsible for you, you are not free. If you are not free, you are enslaved.
FREEDOM
I choose freedom. I want freedom for everyone else.
Freedom is scary. Freedom means you take responsibility.
You and other leftist what us to give up responsibility to the government.
NO!!! NO!!! and NO!!! again.
I choose freedom with all the risks inherent in that choice.
Posted by: JCM on October 1, 2005 05:21 PMFreedom is great when you can coast through life on a "gentleman's C," as has W., or when all your contracts are well insulated, as are Halliburton's, etc.
Unfortunately, most Americans haven't the "legacy" luxury of our slacker in chief.
Posted by: bartelby on October 1, 2005 10:10 PMYou can't even enter into the discussion, you are left with take shots at GWB.
Pathetic.
Posted by: JCM on October 2, 2005 06:47 AM