For decades, research has documented a number of disturbing racial disparities in health care, including higher death rates among African-Americans than whites. While that's still true today, new government data shows some significant improvements.
According to a report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the age-adjusted death rate among African-Americans declined 25 percent from 1999 to 2015. However, although blacks as a whole are living longer, their life expectancy is still four years less than whites and critical racial disparities still persist between the two races, researchers say.
