20 Statistics on Healthcare Disparities and Population Health

Here are 20 statistics on the state of healthcare disparities and population health in the United States, based on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2011 National Healthcare Disparities Report.

Cancer
•    Number of deaths in 2011 — 571,950
•    Number of living Americans who have been diagnosed with cancer (as of 2008) — 11,957,599
•    New cases of cancer in 2011 — 1,596,670
•    New cases of breast cancer in 2011 — 232,620
•    New cases of colorectal cancer in 2011 — 141,210
•    Total cost of cancer cases in 2010 — $226.8 billion

Cardiovascular disease
•    Number of deaths from major cardiovascular disease in 2009 — 779,367
•    Number of cases of heart failure in 2008 — 5.7 million
•    Number of cases of high blood pressure from 2005 to 2008 — 68 million
•    Number of heart attacks or fatal coronary heart disease in 2008 — 1.3 million
•    Total cost of cardiovascular disease in 2011 — $444.2 billion

Health insurance
•    Cost of poor health among uninsured people in 2004 —$125 billion
•    Proportion of personal bankruptcy filings due to medical expenses — 50 percent
•    From 1999 to 2009, the percentage of children ages 0-17 who had health insurance improved. However, for adults ages 18 to 44 and 45 to 64, the percentage decreased.
•    In 2009, Blacks and American Indians and Alaska Natives under age 65 were less likely than Whites to have health insurance (81 percent and 68 percent compared with 83 percent).
•    From 2002 to 2008, people ages 18 to 44 were least likely to have a usual primary care provider.

Priority populations
•    For nine quality measures, the outcomes gap between Blacks and Whites grew smaller, indicating improvement. However, for two measures the gap grew larger:

• Breast cancer diagnosed at advanced stage (regional, distant stage, or local stage with tumor greater than 2 cm) per 100,000 women age 40 and over.
• Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

•    For two measures, the gap between Asians and Whites grew smaller. For one measure the gap grew larger:

• Children 0-40 lb. for whom a health provider gave advice within the past two years about using child safety seats when riding in a car.

•    For one measure the gap between American Indians and Alaska Natives grew smaller. For two measures, the gap grew larger:

• Adults age 50 and over who ever received a colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy or proctoscopy.
• People with difficulty contacting their usual source of care over the telephone.

•    For six measures, the gap between Hispanics/Latinos grew smaller. No measure showed worsening disparities.