The US Economic Burden of Health Inequities/Reply

LaVeist and Gaskin respond to comments on their study on the economic burden of health inequities for Indigenous people--the burden for American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders populations was $47.0 billion using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) and $38.6 billion using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the NVSS. Because of data challenges, these numbers are likely underestimates of the cost of health inequities for Indigenous people. The national and state health databases do not include enough Indigenous people to produce reliable estimates of crude death rates and prevalence rates for health conditions.