State of the Union 2017: Health

Racial and ethnic minorities experience higher-than-average rates of illness, have higher age-specific death rates throughout the life course, and are more likely to suffer from early onset of illnesses and more severe diseases than whites. In this article, I examine these and other differences in health outcomes for whites and blacks in the United States and show that black-white health disparities are large and appear to widen over the life cycle. I also discuss several policy changes that served to narrow racial health disparities in the past and consider how future policies might help ameliorate racial inequities in health.

Reference Information

Author: 

Rucker C. Johnson
Publisher: 
Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
Publication Date: 
June 2017