|
December 1, 2000
President Clinton Signs a Bill to Fight Health Disparities within Minority Communities
Originally published in La Prensa San Diego.
Fighting the health disparity within minority communities recently received a
boost when President Clinton signed into law the "Minority Health and Health
Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000." This Act will enhance
biomedical and behavioral research on minority health and health disparities,
support medical training for minorities and others, and improve the study and
collection of data regarding minorities and other populations.
The legislation authorizes over $150 million to create a new national center
for research on minority health and health disparities; increases funding for
research on race and health disparities at the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality; and creates a new program to attract health disparity researchers
into this critically important field.
At the signing President Clinton stated: "This important legislation builds
on the work of my Administration, particularly the efforts of the Secretary of
Health and Human Services (HHS), Donna Shalala, to develop a truly national
commitment to end disparities in health through research, training, and data
gathering. Under Secretary Shalala, HHS committed to eliminate disparities in
health by race and ethnicity by the year 2010. Eliminating disparities will
require additional research and new approaches, but in the process of addressing
the health needs of our most vulnerable populations, we will improve the
Nation's health care system for everyone."
The Act creates a National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This Center will fund research
programs on health disparities and minority health; support training of members
of health disparity populations as researchers; and provide education loan
relief for health professionals who commit themselves to perform health
disparities research. The Center will also coordinate all NIH research efforts
in this area. The Center promises to help all Americans who bear the burden of
health disparities regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic
status, or geographic location.
This legislation also authorizes the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality to conduct and support activities and research to measure health
disparities and identify causes and remedies. In addition, it authorizes the
Health Resources and Services Administration to support research and
demonstration pro-jects to train health professionals on reducing health care
disparities.
"The elimination of health disparities will require a comprehensive effort,
involving both the Federal Government and the private sector," stated Clinton.
"The Federal Government must continue to make measurable pro-gress against
diseases and conditions that are major contributors to health disparities, and
our commitment to health disparities research must ensure that new knowledge
generated in federally supported laboratories and clinics benefits all of our
citizens. We must also ensure that there is a diverse health care and research
workforce in the future by making efforts to attract and train a generation of
scientists and health care professionals who are prepared to dedicate themselves
to helping eliminate health disparities."
Other articles republished from La Prensa San Diego
|
