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The advances in health care we have attained with an increasing diverse community be threatened under Proposition 209 because the successful outreach, mentoring and tutoring programs which have been responsible for the expanded role of minorities and women in medicine will face elimination.
Proposition 209 threatens the mentoring, outreach, tutoring and leadership programs that have provided equal access for minorities and women to medical schools and academic health care centers. As a result there will be a less diverse applicant pool to chose from and members of minority communities will continue to be under served.
Proposition 209 eliminates efforts to seek racial and gender diversity in schools and employment. The result will be that even fewer members of these communities receiving adequate preventative care and other health care services. This will cost the California health care systems millions.
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Health care providers in California have a record of supporting a workforce as diverse as the states population. The percentage of students from minority groups entering the medical field has risen in the past five years.(1) The numbers of women entering the profession also continues to rise and it is predicted that between 1970 and 2010 there will be an eightfold increase in women entering all aspects of the medical profession.(2) These advances are due in part to the equal opportunity programs available to women and people of color throughout the health care community. These advances will be threatened under Proposition 209 because the successful outreach, mentoring and tutoring programs which have been responsible for the expanded role of minorities and women in medicine will face elimination. Return
Haile Debas, Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco:
". . . A recent UCSF study conclusively confirmed what we have long suspected: that African-American and Hispanic physicians return to serve their respective communities, the very communities that need more doctors! . . . These accomplishments would not have been possible without affirmative action. If you dismantle affirmative action, you are denying the nation the healing opportunity to reject the injustice of race and class discrimination."(3) Return
Caswell A. Evans, Jr, DDS, MPH, President of American Public Health Association warned of the harm in eliminating affirmative action:
"In a community like Los Angeles, with its number of languages, its diversity of culture, you have to be able to rely on staff who are attuned to the nuances of the people you are trying to reach. This applies to the numerator and the denominator. Otherwise, you are going to be less effective. Affirmative action helps supply " minority" health professionals.(4) Return
Proposition 209 threatens the ability of health care providers, hospitals and clinics to recruit educated minorities and women because it guts equal opportunity scholarships and programs for women and people of color to attend public universities, K-12 educational programs, and other public education programs.
Proposition 209 threatens the mentoring, outreach, tutoring and leadership programs that have provided equal access for minorities and women to medical schools and academic health care centers. As a result there will be a less diverse applicant pool to chose from and members of minority communities will continue to be under served.
Women now make up 40% of those entering medical school, yet women doctors are segregated in the fields of family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics-gynecology, pediatrics and psychiatry and make up less than 20% of the surgical residents and only 9.5% of the full professors. Proposition 209 would reduce the figures even further and help to continue the segregation of women in these fields.(5)
Members of under represented minority groups currently only make up 12% of all medical students.(6) CCRI could reduce this number drastically since it will eliminate all equal opportunity affirmative action programs; including college programs such as MESA and MARC which help prepare women and minority students for medical school. Return
Equal Opportunity affirmative action programs help ensure that there is diversity in the medical profession which helps meet the needs of diverse communities. By eliminating all affirmative action programs in education both undergraduate and medical and by eliminating employment opportunities with state agencies providing health services, Proposition 209 threatens health care for under served communities both urban and rural.
Doctors generally practice in areas which a relatively high percentage of their own race or ethnic group. Black physicians cared for nearly six times as many black patients and Hispanic doctors cared for nearly three times as many Hispanic patients as did other physicians. Under Proposition 209 this number will be reduced.(7)
Proposition 209 eliminates efforts to seek racial and gender diversity in schools and employment. The result will be that even fewer members of these communities receiving adequate preventative care and other health care services. This will cost the California health care systems millions.
Proposition 209 will cost California millions because members of under-served communities will not have access to adequate health care and a large portion of the population may suffer adverse health consequences. Return
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(1)New England Journal of Medicine, Black and Hispanic Physicians and Underserved Populations, Vol. 334, No. 20 at 1309. Return
(2)U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fifth Report: Women and Medicine, July 1995 at 32. Return
(3)Public Comment, University of California Board of Regents meeting on July 20-21, 1995. Return(4)The Journal of the American Medical Association, Medical News & Perspectives Interview, Vol. 275, No. 1, January 3, 1996 at 21. Return
(5)U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fifth Report: Women & Medicine, July 1995 at 32, 37, & 41. Return
(6)New England Journal Of Medicine, Black and Hispanic Physicians and Underserved Populations, Vol. 334, No. 20 at 1309. Return
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