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State Legislative Activities Related to Elimination of Health Disparities

How have state legislatures acted to address racial and ethnic disparities in health care? This article examines trends over time in state legislation related to disparities in care and access, proposed legislation during one biennial session, and contemporary legislative attitudes and awareness of the issue. The mix of strategies adopted across the states reflects the differing ways that states understand gaps in minority health and changing strategies over time. Historically, California, Florida, and Louisiana (all states with substantial minority populations) have been the most active in dealing with minority health issues through statutes. In the eighteen months of the 2001–2002 legislative session that we studied, the most common bills called for studies of disparities and appropriations for identifiable minority health initiatives. Measures that successfully cleared the legislature include measures related to cultural competence and minority health awareness month. Finally, the article discusses issues and limitations in using legislative action to measure the level of state policy activity with regard to health disparities. To ground the description of trends in disparity legislation, the authors integrated comments by state legislators with a discussion of problems in interpreting legislative activity.

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