OVER 40 PUBLIC HEALTH CARE EXPERTS CALL CONNERLY INITIATIVE BAD FOR OUR HEALTH

Doctors, healthcare workers and specialists say so-called medical exemption will not protect public health efforts

Saying that UC Regent Ward Connerly’s Ban on Information initiative would severely harm health care in California, over forty well-known and widely respected public health care experts have taken a position against the measure. The measure, “Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color and National Origin” (CRECNO), would bar public agencies from compiling or using information about race and ethnicity.

The experts range from the American Academy of Pediatrics, California District, the American Public Health Association, the California Academy of Family Physicians to the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems and the California Primary Care Association.

In a letter to Connerly, the group addresses his so-called “health care exemption.” “Unfortunately,” the letter states, “this exemption is too narrow to protect public health. Let us be clear: the exemption covers only ‘medical research subjects and patients.’ The initiative would eliminate statistical information on health care providers need to provide quality care to Californians, prevent disease and save lives.”

The letter continues, “Disease is not only fought in the individual doctor’s office. When medical professionals tackle problems like cancer, teen smoking or lead poisoning, we rely on data from surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and epidemiological research. Information on race is extracted from records collected by public agencies – exactly the kinds of records that will be off-limits if the ‘Information Ban’ initiative passes.”

The public health experts go on to say, “Eliminating this information will cost all Californians dearly. If we cannot illuminate these health trends, we cannot effectively fight them. From AIDS and lung cancer to adolescent weight problems and childhood diabetes, the most effective prevention programs carefully target the communities that are the most at risk. Your initiative would turn prevention into a guessing game rather than a knowledge-driven science, forcing us to take a one-size-fits-all approach to public health. This constitutes an unacceptable waste of taxpayers’ money and an unconscionable failure to use crucial tools to help save lives.”

These public health experts, who are on the front lines of addressing and treating diseases and illnesses that impact the general public, join an ever-growing list of groups and individuals opposing the initiative. In April, a Field Poll showed the measure with support from less than 50% of the public; in May, the UC Regents voted overwhelmingly to oppose their colleague, Mr. Connerly, with a vote of 15-3; and last week, seven statewide elected officials took a stance against the measure.


____________________________


June 11, 2003


Mr. Ward Connerly
2215 21st Street
Sacramento CA 95818

Dear Mr. Connerly,

As doctors, healthcare workers, healthcare providers, and specialists in public health, we are writing with an urgent request. We urge you to tell Californians the truth about the impact that the Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color and National Origin (CRECNO) initiative will have on their families’ health.

This initiative, which you worked hard to qualify for the ballot in March 2004, will have a devastating impact on the health of communities across California. The initiative would bar public agencies from compiling or using information about race and ethnicity, creating unacceptable barriers to our crucial task of eradicating preventable disease, premature death, and disability.

You pose the question: "Why should it [race] matter to the government?" For us, the answer is simple. Disease is not colorblind. It affects people of different races and ethnicities in a multitude of ways, for a multitude of reasons. If we do not chronicle these differences, we cannot effectively fight disease.

You state that the initiative includes an exemption for medical research and treatment. Unfortunately, this exemption is too narrow to protect public health. Let us be clear: the exemption covers only “medical research subjects and patients.” The initiative would eliminate statistical information health care providers need to provide quality care to Californians, prevent disease and save lives.

Disease is not only fought in the individual doctor’s office. When medical professionals tackle problems like cancer, teen smoking or lead poisoning, we rely on data from surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and epidemiological research. Information on race is extracted from records collected by public agencies – exactly the kinds of records that will be off-limits if the “Information Ban” Initiative passes.

For example, in Alameda County, where African Americans have the highest rates of illness and death across a variety of health conditions, scientists with the Public Health Department use a wide range of information, including birth and death registries and motor vehicle crash data, in their efforts to improve community health. County epidemiologist Jane E. Martin, Dr.P.H., notes, “A ban on collection of race/ethnicity data would severely hamper our efforts to improve the health of Alameda County residents through targeted prevention programs.”

There are numerous well-documented differences in health status between racial groups. Indeed, the Institute of Medicine commissioned by the U.S. Congress recently released a 400- page report entitled “Unequal Treatment: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health Status,” which details hundreds of studies that document inequitable treatment due to race.

We need access to a full range of information in order to address these startling health disparities And we need information in order to improve the health of all Californians. For while this initiative may mask many differences in the way that disease and prevention efforts affect us, it cannot make them disappear.

If your initiative passes, real facts would be hidden from us: we would not know that suicide is one of the top ten causes of death in Asian women; that white women are more likely to get breast cancer, but African American women are more likely to die from the disease; or that Alzheimers Disease is one of the top ten causes of death only among whites.

Eliminating this information will cost all Californians dearly. If we cannot illuminate these health trends, we cannot effectively fight them. From AIDS and lung cancer to adolescent weight problems and childhood diabetes, the most effective prevention programs carefully target the communities that are the most at risk. Your initiative would turn prevention into a guessing game rather than a knowledge-driven science, forcing us to take a one-size-fits-all approach to public health. This constitutes an unacceptable waste of taxpayers’ money and an unconscionable failure to use crucial tools to help save lives.

Only by carefully monitoring health disparities can we develop solutions that benefit all Californians’ health. Mr. Connerly, we urge you to not allow your dream of a racially blind society to blind you to the very real needs of our communities. We urge you, instead, to acknowledge publicly the devastating impact that this initiative would have on all Californians’ health.

Sincerely ,



The following health care organizations and professionals:


Organizational signatories

Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Alameda Health Consortium
American Academy of Pediatrics, California District
American Public Health Association
Armenian American Medical Society of California
Asian American Drug Abuse Program
Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Asian Health Services
Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO)
Berkeley Youth Alternatives
Breast Cancer Action
California Academy of Family Physicians
California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems
California Black Health Network
California Center for Public Health Advocacy
California Latino Medical Association
California Medical Association
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California Primary Care Association
California Public Association-North
California Rural Indian Health Board
California’s Women’s Mental Health Policy Council
Community Wellness Partnership of Pomona
Family Bridges, Inc.
Health Access California
Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
Latino Issues Forum
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Minority Health Institute
National Health Law Program
Native American Health Center
NICOS Chinese Health Coalition
North Coast Clinics Network
PALS for Health
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Prevention Institute
Public Health Institute
Southern California Public Health Association
Strategic Alliance

Individual signatories

Alice Chan, RN
Ana Traylor Jefferson (Tobacco Prevention Project Coordinator, City of Berkeley, Tobacco Prevention Program)
Anna M. Ferrera
Anna Napoles Springer, Ph.D
Anne Menasche
Arnold Perkins (Director, Alameda County Public Health Department)
Avi Rose
Barbara Baquero
Bram B. Briggance
Brian Smedley
C. Freeman, MD
Carmen Rita Nevarez, MD, MPH
Carol A. York
Carolyn R. Towler, MD
Catherine Cubbin, Ph.D. (Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine)
Christine M. Page-Lopez
Darolyn Underwood, RN (Senior Public Health Nurse, Health Care Agency, County of Orange)
Dava Freed
Dina Burwell
Edie McLeod
Eliseo Perez-Stable, MD (Professor of Medicine, UCSF)
Ellen R. Shaffer, PhD, MPH (UCSF)
Ellen Wiewel
George R. Flores, MD, MPH
George Wolfe, MD, MPH
Gina M. Soloman, MD, MPH
Glennah Trochet M.D. (Sacramento County Public Health Officer, Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services)
Gloria J. Burroughs MD
H. Jack Geiger, MD
Jane Williams
Janet L. Supriano
Joseph W. Hogan, Sc.D. (Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Brown University)
Jovita Harrah
Juanita Dimas, PhD
Julia G. Cruz (Professor, California State University, Stanislaus)
Julie Damon, MD
Kim Toevs, midwife, MPH
Linda L. Medal (Vista Community Clinic)
Lisa Pascopella, PhD, MPH
Lorraine M. Smith, MD, MPH
Margaret S Wright, RN, MSN, CS
Maria Aguilar
Maricela Ureño, M.P.H.
Marne Castillo, M.Ed. (Coordinator of Primary Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)
Mary Moseley
Michael A. Rodríguez, MD, MPH (Associate Professor, UCLA)
Michael Gramling (Chief, Education & Outreach Unit, Medi-Cal Managed Care Division)
Michele Ybarra, MPH PhD
Michelle Seijas
Nancy Krieger (Associate Professor, Dept of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health)
Nora G. Nario
Paul Espinas, MD
Rachel Morello-Frosch, M.P.H, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Brown University, Department of Community Health, School of Medicine)
Rhonda Sarnoff
Rhonda West-Peters (Project Director, African American Tobacco Education Network)
Robert Isman, DDS, MPH
Robert Levin, MD (Ventura County Public Health Officer)
Robert Taylor, Jr. (Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science)
Ruth Ann Terry, RN, MPH
Sylvia S. Soto
Sylvia Swilley, MD
Tyan Parker Dominguez, PhD, MPH, MSW (School of Social Work, University of Southern California)
William R. Maas (Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service, retired)
Yvette M. Manard, MPH
Yvette Wilson, RN (Center for Community and Family Services, Head Start)