Health Disparities Myth ─ Diagnosing the Treatment Gap

Many experts today insist that race profoundly affects how the medical-care system deals with patients, and that black patients will get care that is inferior to white patients. Is this true? In The Health Disparities Myth, Jonathan Klick and Sally Satel conclude that differences in treatment indeed vary by race but not because of it. Data show that third factors, especially geography and socioeconomic factors, generate the strongest momentum in driving the treatment gap. Because health care varies a great deal depending on where people live, and because blacks are overrepresented in regions of the United States served by poorer health care facilities, disparities are, at least in part, a function of residence and not of discrimination.

Sally Satel, M.D., a psychiatrist, studies domestic drug policy, mental health policy (including the psychological impact of war and disasters), and political trends in medicine. Coauthor of One Nation Under Therapy and author of PC, M.D., she also works as a staff psychiatrist at the Oasis Drug Treatment Clinic.

Jonathan Klick is the Jeffrey A. Stoops Professor of Law at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. Klick received his law degree and his PhD in economics from George Mason University. He has published widely about health care economics and issues related to individuals' access to health care. He can be contacted at jklick@law.fsu.edu.