Political Quotes

“Every day, through personal experience or the news, we are reminded of the tremendous scientific advances that have been made in medicine; but unfortunately, millions of Americans still experience serious disparities in health outcomes as a result of ethnicity, race, gender, or a lack of access to health care services. Recent studies have demonstrated that minority populations, in addition to having lower rates of health care access, exhibit poorer health outcomes and may have higher rates of HIV/AIDS, diabetes, infant mortality, death from cancer and heart disease, and other health problems. For example, when compared to whites, the mortality rate for prostate cancer is nearly twice that for black men; and while African Americans make up only 13 percent of our nations's population, they represented 49 percent of AIDS deaths in 1998. Further, compared to whites, the prevalence of diabetes in Hispanic individuals is nearly double. In my home state of Tennessee, African Americans have an infant mortality rate nearly three times that of white Tennesseans, and Tennessee's African Americans suffer from heart disease at one and a half times that rate of whites and are twice as likely to suffer a stroke.”