S.F. focuses on racial, cultural groups in pioneering health plan

This is a very interesting story about San Francisco's new health plan. They are covering all the people who are uninsured in all ethnic groups. Maybe it will be a blue print for the country. DP

By Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer

sfgate.com: San Francisco is the first city in the country to find the money and political will to attempt to provide universal health care for its residents, but leaders of the new plan say its success hinges on a notion rarely discussed in the health care debates raging at the state and national levels: cultural competency.

Rather than treating patients using just raw data such as blood pressure levels and cholesterol counts, medical professionals also are taking into account patients' race, gender, age, sexual orientation, native language and other demographics in marketing the plan and providing the best medical care once they enroll.

In a city of distinct neighborhoods often populated by particular racial or ethnic groups, thousands of immigrants speaking more than 100 languages and a significant population of gays and lesbians, those behind the new plan, dubbed Healthy San Francisco, believe it will succeed or fail largely on how well cultural competency is practiced.

"There's a reason we have a clinic in Chinatown and a separate clinic in the Mission and a separate clinic in the Bayview," said Dr. Mitch Katz, director of the city's public health department. "That's because we realize there are cultural differences in the ways people seek care. ... We try to get as specific as we can."

In San Francisco, that means anything from a special clinic for gay and lesbian youths who might find it off-putting to be surrounded by middle-aged gay and lesbian patients to hiring Asian actors to star in public service announcements about health care to run on Chinese-language television stations.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.