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Medicare News
AARP Finds Minorities Not Taking Full Advantage of
Medicare Services
Many senior minorities passing up free flu, pneumonia
shots
June 21, 2007 African-Americans nor Hispanics
take advantage of Medicares free flu and pneumonia immunization at any
where near the rate of their white senior citizen counterparts,
although, these shots can be life-saving. The statistics were revealed
today by AARP at is Diversity and Aging n the 21st Century Conference in
Los Angeles.
This evidence also closely follows an announcement
last week by Health and Human Services of a new campaign by several
agencies to encourage increased participation in Medicare by Hispanics.
"We need to pay close attention to the needs of
diverse aging populations, so that there is no divide or disparity in
the quality of health care and information they receive," said AARP
Chief Diversity Officer Percil Stanford
In 2004, two-thirds of whites 65 years and older
received flu vaccines, compared with just 45 percent of African
Americans and 55 percent of Hispanics.
The gap is even wider for pneumonia with only 39
percent of older African Americans and 34 percent of older Hispanics,
reporting having been vaccinated, compared with 61 percent of whites.
Collectively these diseases are responsible for
over 200,000 costly hospitalizations and 41,000 deaths each year. The
large majority of these cases occur among older adults, who are
especially susceptible to complications resulting from these illnesses.
"Immunizations are critical to our public health
system as well; keeping people healthy is more efficient and economical
than caring for people after they get sick. More needs to be done to
increase awareness and improve immunization rates. The best solution
lies in community-based education and awareness programs," said
Stanford.
>>
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