Racial disparities in the use of the health care system and in health care outcomes have been well documented, including a new study by researchers at Dartmouth. Less well known is that this is a worldwide phenomenon. The Inuits and the Cree in Canada, the Maori of New Zealand, the Aborigines in Australia-all get less care and have worse health outcomes than the majority white populations. [See Lives at Risk.]

One foundation (guess who?) is planning to spend $300 million to study the U.S. problem. A better use of resources would be to put the money in the bank and download a few articles by University of Chicago Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, the economist who invented the whole field of the economics of discrimination. Continue reading »