A new analysis of health care spending in the United States found stark disparities across racial and ethnic lines in how medical resources are divided.
Non-Hispanic white Americans, who made up 61 percent of the nation’s population at the time of the study, accounted for 72 percent of the $2.4 trillion spent in 2016 on ambulatory, inpatient and emergency care; nursing facilities; prescribed pharmaceuticals; and dental care, according to arecent study published inJAMA.
No other single racial or ethnic group received an outsized piece of the health care pie:
The researchers analyzed data collected on 7.3 million health system visits, admissions or prescriptions from 2002 through 2016 totaling an estimated $29.9 trillion in spending across six types of care.
The racial and ethnic disparities in health care spending that the analysis revealed persisted after adjusting for differences in age or health conditions among racial and ethnic groups.
“This study provides evidence of spending and utilization differences across race and ethnicity groups that cannot be explained by differences in the age or notified health status of the individual, the researchers wrote.
Instead, they suggest that myriad causes that have been previously identified are at play, including how physicians respond to patients,[…] bias that exists in the algorithms that assess health needs and determine appropriate interventions, and residential segregation that precludes easy access to health care services.”
Inside the numbers
Although health care spending by African Americans was roughly in proportion with their population size, the researchers say, a closer look at the numbers suggest they do not receive care until they are experiencing advanced illness.
African Americans accounted for 26 percent less spending on outpatient care but 12 percent more spending onemergency department careper person than average, a finding that reinforces previous research showing unequal access to primary care, the study authors observed.
