FP Report -- November 1998 Equation out of whack
More minorities in America, fewer offering care
Over time, the health care workforce will look less and less like the people it serves.
"Twenty-five percent of the population is from minority groups, 10 percent are in the health professions, and the gap is widening," said Claude Earl Fox III, M.D., M.P.H., administrator of the Health Resources and Services Adminis-tration, Sept. 24 at the national initiatives meeting in Baltimore.
Several of the initiatives received HRSA funding. "Our data show, thank God, that our (HRSA-supported) graduates are four times more likely to practice in underserved areas than others," said Fox.
AAFP Education Division Director Norman Kahn, M.D., asked, "How do you see the federal government partnering with the states about minority issues when the states seem to be moving away from affirmative action?"
Fox answered, "We can provide models that work for recruiting minority kids. We can provide data to states, to policy-makers, so they know their state's health status. We can look at the catalytic role the feds can play -- we can fund some projects, but we at HRSA have a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed."
And he cautioned, "What we do can't be heavy-handed."
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1998 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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