Blacks, in general -- whether it's heart disease, diabetes, or cancer -- will be diagnosed later and die sooner than whites. And Dr. Garth N. Graham wants to know why no one seems to care.

As a deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Minority Health (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), Graham works closely with doctors, hospitals and public health officials across the country -- who have all accepted disparities as a serious threat to the health of blacks.

What if blacks were charged twice as much for gas as whites? What if black votes only counted as half a white vote? Would we as a society accept that? Would we simply shrug our shoulders and say, ``Well, there's nothing I can do about it''?

Health officials are able to point to only one true breakthrough. And that came just last week, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported no statistically significant difference in vaccination rates among blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics for 19- to 35-month-old children.

Twenty years since then-Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Margaret Heckler released the nation's first report on racial health disparities, Graham said ``you'd be hard pressed to document much in terms of gains or much in terms of momentum'' in tackling disparities.

The problem, he said, is that the problem involves too many separate entities -- hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, health departments and, of course, people. No single group can fix the problem, so apathy sets in.

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