Ethnic minority groups criticise US report on healthcare disparities

The United States's first national report on disparities in health care has been watered down through the intervention of political appointees seeking to deny the existence of a race based gap in health care in the country, say doctors, congressmen, and ethnic minority pressure groups.

The annual report card was expected to elaborate on the findings of a study in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine, which argued that the evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare …