Our technical ability to measure apparent differences in mortality, health status, and access to health care services among various subpopulations and groups continues to expand much more rapidly than the identification and implementation of sustainable steps to reduce, let alone, eliminate them, writes AEI's Tom Miller, in a Health Affairs posting on health care disparities.

Miller recommends rebalancing our health investments to focus more on the lives of children from disadvantaged environments. Quite simply, interventions to boost both health and skills development are more effective in early childhood than later in life, and building mutually reinforcing early advantages for targeted populations are much less costly than trying to correct deficits and their likely consequences much later, he writes. Additionally, it would be better to shape such early interventions more broadly, with greater emphasis on improving education quality and the development of fundamental skills, rather than delivery of enhanced health care services alone.

He concludes by saying that although expensive health technology may at first be more available to those consumers with more education, or greater resources, its benefits eventually extend to everyone, even those more prone to experiencing health disparities.