Here at home Congress is in a dog fight over whether the
President's tax cut proposal will benefit the rich or help the
other 95 percent of Americans. Meanwhile, millions of families
ponder the reasons for the persistence of health disparities in
the most affluent country on earth and the country that spends
more on its healthcare system than any other. Or why the gap in
health status between rich and poor actually widened between
1983 and 2002. Such issues are said to be top priority at the
National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
(NCMHD), a federally funded center of the National Institutes of
Health since 2000. The NCMHD was designated by Congress to lead,
coordinate, support and assess the NIH research effort to reduce
and ultimately eliminate health disparities that affect
racial/ethnic communities and the medically underserved. NCMHD
Director, John Ruffin concedes despite billions of dollars spent
on medical research and recent medical advances, at least 44
million Americans have no hea