Maybe it's the government health care?

Isn't this odd. Those who are the most dependent on government health care seem to have the poorest results--and we're talking access and quality here, not the end result of poverty or poor education.

Health Care Quality and Access Are Suboptimal, Especially for Minority and Low-Income Groups

"National Healthcare Quality Report and National Healthcare Disparities Report released by AHRQ. The reports, which are mandated by Congress, show trends by measuring health care quality for the nation using a group of credible core measures. The data are based on more than 200 health care measures categorized in several areas of quality: effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, patient-centeredness, care coordination, efficiency, health system infrastructure, and access. Few disparities in quality of care are getting smaller, and almost no disparities in access to care are getting smaller, according to the report. Overall, blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives received worse care than whites for about 40 percent of core measures."

In 2003, a key finding was "Inequality in quality persists;" in 2008 it was "Disparities persist in health care quality."

2010 National Healthcare Disparities and Quality Reports

Even with all the nannying and nagging about healthy lifestyles (imagine the billions spent on this), there's been almost no change: "Healthy lifestyles: The NHQR and NHDR track five measures related to obesity, diet, and exercise; four measures related to nicotine and other substance addictions; and four measures related to transportation safety for children. Across these measures, most showed no improvement. Median rate of improvement was 0.9% per year. Most disparities did not change, but the Hispanic-non-Hispanic White and poor-high income gaps in counseling about smoking cessation narrowed." Sooo, you can close the gap on counseling, but it doesn't do any good? Is that what the research says? Cha-ching.