As Jacob, one of the three Old Testament patriarchs, flees from his brother Esau, he stops for the night at Bethel, where he dreams of a ladder going from earth to heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending the ladder (Genesis 28:11-19). There is extensive biblical commentary on this dream and particularly on […]

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts on health and health care disparities that Health Affairs Blog is publishing in conjunction with the new March/April issue of Health Affairs on Disparities: Expanding The Focus, published with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Brian Smedley, Richard Epstein, and Dora Hughes contributed earlier posts in the series, which […]

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of posts on health and health care disparities that Health Affairs Blog is publishing in conjunction with the new March/April issue of Health Affairs on Disparities: Expanding The Focus, published with support from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The series will also feature posts from Richard […]

Almost 17 percent of black children and 20.5 percent of Latino children in the United States live in “double jeopardy,” meaning that they live in both poor families and poor neighborhoods, according to research released today in the March/April issue of Health Affairs. In contrast, only 1.4 percent of white children live in double jeopardy.
In […]

The last week of February 2008 marked the first anniversary of the death of Deamonte Driver, the twelve-year-old-boy from Prince Georges’ County, Maryland who died from a tooth infection that spread to his brain. His death was another sorry statistic in the litany of sorry statistics about the disparities in health and access to health insurance […]

On Thursday, February 28, 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will launch a non-partisan commission to identify and recommend practical solutions that address the many non-medical influences on health and improve opportunities for more Americans to make healthier choices.

In the latest edition of Health Affairs and at the journal’s recent Washington briefing, “caring for the vulnerable” was the major agenda. It was a bittersweet occasion. Health Affairs deserves much credit for challenging us on how well we care for the vulnerable.
However. “Caring for the vulnerable” is an important mission, like the heroic efforts […]

Expanding coverage to the forty-seven million Americans who now lack health insurance could greatly improve care for people who already are protected, according to a new study in the September-October issue of Health Affairs. Economists Mark Pauly of Wharton and José Pagán of the University of Texas-Pan American found that insured adults who live in communities […]

Whether it is ascertainable as fact or merely an impression, recent findings from the legendary Whitehall studies in the U.K. strongly suggest an interest in the quality of human relationships in society relative to health that is all but unimaginable in the United States. The New World is trying to get a grip on racial, […]