By Tom Bratt

Staff Writer

Kent County commissioners agreed less than a month ago to spend $500,000 to help minorities with health care. The plan was devised because statistics showed area minorities were not getting the same health care treatment as whites.

The county studied the issue after seeing U.S. Census reports about the infant mortality rates for both whites and minorities. The reports showed black infants, for instance, dying at a rate three times higher than that of white infants. Low birth weight in black infants was two-and-a-half times higher than that of white infants.

The money, distributed between monitoring health care clinics, will create a new county clinic coordinator and programs teaching cultural sensitivity to health care providers, said county officials.

The Kent County Commission passed the plan unanimously.

There is speculation, however, on what percentage of the population the new plan helps. Kent County Commissioner from Grandville, Marvin Hiddema, wonders if the plan is beneficial because it only targets people of color.

``I'm for the concept, but my concern is that it's too restrictive. I'm not suggesting that we do less, but that we do more by removing the restrictions so we can serve the 85 percent of the population that under this resolution we could not,'' he said.

Commissioner Paul Mayhue of Grand Rapids, one of two black commissioners, said in response that health care is important because Grand Rapids needs to ``focus on issues that affect the African-American community.''

Dr. Khan Nedd, an intern and staff physician at Spectrum Blodgett agrees with Mayhue.

``To suggest health care is color-blind in metropolitan Grand Rapids is ver unrealistic,'' he said.

This comes partly through Census statistics that showed when all factors are equal, blacks still get worse treatment than whites for similar healthcare issues.

Paul Doyle, co-chairman of the African American Health Institute, said it is important to address the needs and problems of minority health care.

``It tells the African American community that we view [health care] as a high priority,'' said Doyle.

According to Calvin junior Rachel Stevenson, a chair for the Social Justice committee, racism effects all areas of society.

``Racism has become part of the structural nature of institutions in the United States,'' she said.

Minorities often ``find themselves on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic scale and therefore face the crippling effects of both racism and classism, which often reinforce and legitimize each other,'' said Stevenson.

Jacqueline Rhodes, assistant dean of Multi-Cultural Student Development at Calvin, agrees: ``The health care system is comprised of folks tainted by the sin of racism, just like other institutions in our country, i.e., education, banking, real estate. It would be naive to think that the health care system would be spared.''

``Poor people struggle to receive good health care,'' said Rhodes. ``But there is a direct correlation in this country between poverty and race. Many people of color are poor. More African American babies die as infants.

``It is very hard to separate the two. I feel certain that people of color, regardless of economic status, struggle to find good health care.''

Rhodes believes it is important to take note of the past love/hate relationship between minorities and health care. She points out the case of the Tuskegee experiment, where the government withheld medication from black men with syphilis.

Rhodes believes the current state of minority healthcare could be improved if ``professionals in the medical field [went] through some sort of anti-racism training to confront dormant stereotypes.''

She believes this because ``every man, woman, girl and boy should have good healthcare regardless of race.''

``The preferential treatment of whites to minorities in the health care system is the result of stereotypes and discrimination on the personal level and also of institutional racism,'' said Calvin senior Erek Kooyman. ``The first is the result of the subjectivity of health care professionals in providing services. The second is the result of policy issues that reflect on the insurance and geographical location of minorities.''

Women and minorities often get less treatment than men, but especially than white men. Any effort to help improve their treatment is important, will benefit society and will level the proverbial playing field, said Stevenson.