Hispanic population health issues portend challenges for health care system

National Journal: The Perils Of Assimilation
The Hispanic population boom recorded in last week's census data portends huge challenges for a health care system that has struggled to meet that community's needs. Today, Hispanics are much more likely to be uninsured than whites or African-Americans, and they face elevated rates of obesity, diabetes, and asthma. Because Hispanics are growing into such a substantial share of the overall population, the nation is unlikely to gain much ground in its efforts to control costs by reducing preventable diseases unless it finds ways to reverse those trends. Researchers call it the Immigrant Effect. As a population integrates into U.S. society, it simultaneously encounters more health problems (DoBias, 3/31).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.