--by Kelly Laflamme, EH Program Director
When I moved to New Hampshire several years ago, someone said to me, “We don’t have racism in New Hampshire – there just aren’t enough people of color here.” I was stunned by the simplistic analysis of what I see as a terrifically complex issue.
Likewise, when we look broadly at data and statistics for health and well-being among New Hampshire residents – we see a stunningly simple picture. New Hampshire is the 2nd healthiest state in the country. Our state has the lowest child poverty rate in the country. But for those of us who care deeply about the most vulnerable members of our communities, we know that aggregates and averages hide the reality of homelessness, hunger, disproportionate disease burden and premature death for some folks in our state.
This week we celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, historic legislation with potential to move our country and our state towards a healthier tomorrow. On this anniversary new requirements for the collection and reporting of data -- standardizing how race, ethnicity, language, gender and disability data are collected – go into effect.
Bill Walker, founding director of the State’s Office of Minority Health, often reminded health leaders of the reality, “No data—no problem.” In other words, we only know what the data we collect, report and read tell us. So if we don’t collect data that help us to reveal differences in health they won’t exist. Yet they do. For example, national data show us differences such higher infant mortality for babies born to African-American women even when income and education are equal. Locally, a community health center used electronic health records to identify lower flu immunization rates among their Spanish-speaking patients.
Collection of this data is a crucial step in enabling health care providers and policy makers to identify where and for whom differences in health status exist. With the right data, we can identify the problems and move forward on the more important tasks of implementing targeted solutions. Only then will we live up to our ranking as the 2nd healthiest state in the nation. Only then will we improve the quality of health care for all and offer all people in our state an equal chance at health.