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California Health And Safety Code Section 150

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The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) The health status of California's racial and ethnic
communities is poor relative to the health status of the white
population.
   (b) Of the estimated 24 percent of Californians without health
insurance, approximately 81 percent are from racial and ethnic
communities.
   (c) Of the uninsured in California, an estimated 38 percent are
Latino, 24 percent are Asian and Pacific Islander, and 19 percent are
African-American.
   (d) Racial and ethnic communities suffer from various infections
and communicable diseases at higher rates than the white population,
and experience increased mortality from more preventable disease
relative to the white population.  For example, the President's
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Initiative recognized that
infant mortality rates are 2.5 times higher for African-Americans and
1.5 times higher for native Americans than for the white population.
  African men under 65 years of age suffer from prostate cancer at
nearly five times the rate of white men and Vietnamese women suffer
from cervical cancer at nearly five times the rate of white women.
Latinos suffer from stomach cancer at two to three times the rate of
the white population, and African-American men suffer from heart
disease at nearly twice the rate of white men.  Native Americans
suffer from diabetes at nearly three times the average rate of the
white population, while African-Americans suffer 70 percent higher
rates of diabetes than the white population.
   (e) Efforts to reduce and eliminate racial and ethnic disparities
in health status have received scant attention, both in terms of
funding for prevention and treatment services, as well as research.
   (f) Program planning and implementation efforts to reduce these
health disparities have been neither inclusive of racial and ethnic
communities nor responsive to the needs of these communities.

Last modified: January 12, 2009