Former Surgeon General Advocates
For Minority Health Issues

The United States has the world's best physicians, medical professionals, hospitals and research. For minorities and the poor, though, such benefits often are out of reach.

That was among the many messages former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, MD, delivered to listeners at IU School of Medicine's Emerson Hall. This appearance and others at Clarian Health sites were part of her two-day visit to Indianapolis, sponsored by Clarian Health, to participate in observances of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

"We've got the means to prevent disease and we can care for people when they arrive in the ER or OR, but the key is to keep people from getting there in the first place, and we do that through education," said Dr. Elders, who served the Clinton administration as surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service from 1993 to 1994.

"We've got the best to offer in health care, yet we have a health care-illiterate society, and these problems are especially acute with our minorities," Dr. Elders said.

She said African-Americans' experience comparatively high rates of infant mortality, prostate cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Dr. Elders said that minorities and the poor often are excluded from health care because they lack health insurance or reside in medically underserved areas.

"Every criminal in this country has a constitutional right to an attorney, but why is it not every person has a right to receive health care?" Dr. Elders said, drawing applause from listeners.

The antidote, Dr. Elders added, is for physicians, educators and parents to work harder to educate children of all ages about the dangers of tobacco use, unprotected sexual intercourse, and the benefits of healthy diets and exercise.

"Those of us in the medical community must become advocates for 100-hundred-percent access to health care for all Americans and zero-percent disparity - the kind of dream Dr. King had for our country and all of its people," she said. Dr. Elders is currently a pediatric endocrinologist on staff with the University of Arkansas Medical School.