Public health and the public agenda

This paper was presented as the distinguished address at the conference "Unequal incomes, unequal outcomes? Economic inequality and measures of well-being." The conference was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on May 7, 1999. The author examines health issues, observing that infant mortality rates for African-Americans are twice as high as they are for white Americans; Chinese-Americans are four to five times more likely to suffer from liver cancer than other Americans; and Latinos and Native Americans develop diabetes at a rate twice and three times the U.S. average, respectively.