Isn't it time for a public health policy that guarantees that African Americans and other darker-skinned populations are automatically screened for Vitamin D deficiency in all treatment settings?  Here's the truth of the matter: Widespread administration of Vitamin D3 to African-American communities would increase their lifespan by five to six years.  That's 150 million years of life extension in the US alone.  Morbidity associated with autoimmune disease - diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, asthma - would all diminish.  So would cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia and osteoporosis.  The literature is all there.  Why doesn't someone just do it?  Take ten primarily African-American zip codes around the US and mail each household a thousand 2000 mg vitamin D3 pills once annually and watch the hospitalization and death rates plummet.  Obama's healthcare plan would work just fine.  Doctors could concentrate on preventive medicine and the pharmaceutical industry would just have to -- deal with a precipitous drop in demand for their medications.  Preach it!  Yeah!  Mm-hmm!  So why aren't they giving it. Do they just not like us darker-skinned people?