New researches show that African American and Hispanic patients, along with white uninsured people, run the greatest risks when it comes to their health. Health experts say that past medical histories could account for the large number of deaths that occur from trauma especially, because specialized centers do not have a clear evidence of patients' medical problems up to the point when they come in.
 

Experts have been drawing attention to the fact that huge disparities exist between the levels of health care various classes of the population receive for a very long time. However, few solutions exist for those who cannot afford medical insurances that cover a wide area of risks. And even if they were covered by policies, chances are their health insurance company would deny them the care they needed just to save money and not pay for medical costs.
 

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Adil H. Haider, M.D., M.P.H., conducted the recent survey by analyzing the medical records of over 429,750 patients from more than 700 trauma centers nationwide. The files came from patients aged 18 to 64 and contained a detailed list of their previous medical conditions, spanning over 4 years, from 2001 to 2005.
 

He found out that death rates among Hispanics and African Americans were higher than in the case of white patients by 3 to 5 percent. Also, uninsured patients presented an almost double fatality rate than those with medical insurance (8.6 percent versus 4.4 percent). "The absence of health insurance increased a trauma patient's adjusted odds of death by almost 50 percent," wrote the authors of the study.
 

Health experts argue that factors such as stereotyping, prejudice and mistrust towards and from minorities could also account for the huge disparities that exist between the levels of medical attention races receive in the U.S. "The next step will be to comprehend the underlying reasons for these differences, which will enable the development of interventions to close the gap between patients of different races and payer statuses," concludes Haider.