SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reducing Disparities 
Using Care Models and Education Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) The infant death rate among African-Amer-
icans is more than double that of Whites. 
(2) The death rate for all cancers is 30-percent 
higher for African-Americans than for Whites; for 
prostate cancer, it is more than double that for 
Whites. 
(3) Black women have a higher death rate from 
breast cancer despite having a mammography 
screening rate that is nearly the same as the rate for 
White women. 
(4) In 2013, Asian-Americans and Pacific Is-
landers were the only racial group where cancer was 
the number one cause of death. Asian-Americans 
have the lowest screening rates for breast (64.1 per-
cent), cervical (75.4 percent), and colorectal (46.9 
percent) cancer, compared to all other racial groups; 
the cervical cancer rate for Vietnamese-American 
women is five times higher than for non-Hispanic 
Whites. 
(5) Diabetes incidence is highest among Native 
Americans, at 15.9 percent, followed by 13.2 percent 
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for African-Americans, 12.8 percent for Hispanics, 
9.0 percent for Asians, and 7.6 percent for Whites. 
In 2012, the percentage of Native Hawaiians and 
Pacific Islanders with diabetes was nearly two times 
higher than that of Whites. 
(6) New cases of hepatitis and tuberculosis are 
higher in Asians and Pacific Islanders living in the 
United States than in Whites. Half of all persons 
living with hepatitis B in the United States are 
Asian-American. 
(7) Individuals in same-sex couples were more 
likely than individuals in different-sex couples to re-
port a delay in getting necessary prescriptions. 
(8) Infants born to Black women are 1.5 to 3 
times more likely to die than those born to women 
of other races or ethnicities, and American Indian 
and Alaska Native infants die from sudden infant 
death syndrome (SIDS) at nearly 2.5 times the rate 
of White infants. 
(9) Low-income children have higher rates of 
mortality (even with the same condition), have high-
er rates of disability, and are more likely to have 
multiple conditions. 
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(10) White children are half as likely as Black 
and Latino children not to be in excellent or very 
good health. 
(11) As of 2012, 38.9 percent of United States 
adults were obese, with the highest rate among Afri-
can-Americans at 47.9 percent, followed by His-
panics at 42.5 percent, Whites at 32.6 percent, and 
Asians at 10.8 percent. Native Hawaiians and Pa-
cific Islanders are 30-percent more likely to be obese 
than non-Hispanic Whites. Lack of disaggregated 
data among Asians can mask differences in the bur-
den of obesity among ethnic groups. 
(12) The risk of stroke is twice as high for Af-
rican-Americans as for Whites, and African-Ameri-
cans are more likely to die of stroke. Other ethnic 
minorities also have higher risk than Whites. Over-
all, strokes are most prevalent in the Southeast 
United States, and less so in the Northeast. 
(13) African-Americans accounted for 44 per-
cent of all those infected with HIV, despite being 
only 12 percent of the United States population. 
(14) Black men who have sex with men (MSM) 
ages 13 to 24 had the most new infections among 
youth. 
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(15) Asian-Americans have the lowest rate of 
testing for HIV, with only four in 10 having ever 
been tested; Asian-American and Pacific Islander 
women have the lowest proportion (17.2 percent) of 
having ever been tested for HIV compared to other 
races. 
(16) Globally, transgender women are 49 times 
more likely to acquire HIV than the general popu-
lation; in the United States, transgender women are 
34 times more likely than the general population. 
(17) One study found that among heterosexuals 
living in the same urban community, those below the 
poverty line were twice as likely to contract human 
immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 
(18) Persons with less than a high school di-
ploma (6.7 percent) and high school graduates (4.0 
percent) were more likely to report major depression 
than those with at least some college education (2.5 
percent). 
(19) Only about 10 percent of physicians prac-
tice in rural America despite the fact that nearly 
one-fourth of the population lives in these areas. 
(20) Rural residents are less likely to have em-
ployer-provided health care coverage or prescription 
drug coverage, and the rural poor are less likely to 
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be covered by Medicaid benefits than their urban 
counterparts. 
(21) Twenty percent of nonmetropolitan coun-
ties lack mental health services versus 5 percent of 
metropolitan counties. 
(22) Forty-one percent of transgender people 
have reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6 
percent of the general population. 
(23) Fifteen percent of persons with disabilities 
report not seeing a doctor due to cost in comparison 
to 6 percent of the general population. 
(24) Nineteen percent of transgender people 
have been refused medical care because of their gen-
der identity. Twenty-eight percent have been har-
assed in a doctor’s office. 
(25) More than 20 percent of the United States 
population speaks a language other than English at 
home. Among Asian-Americans, 32 percent are lim-
ited English proficient, meaning they speak English 
less than very well or not at all. Lack of linguis-
tically accessible care presents health access chal-
lenges and can contribute to disparities for limited 
English speakers. 
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