[Cyber Wolf]

Interesting...I just had a conversation on this subject about a week ago with my parents, both black and both PhDs and Specialists (Mother: cardiologist, Father: radiologist/nuclear medicine).

My parents once had their own practice. When they ran their own office, the majority (90%+) of the patients they saw were of a minority group, largely black. Many of the patients they saw were glad they were there and operating in Richmond VA because Richmond (at the time) was so supersaturated with white specialists who never seemed to want to help them or treated them like children ("This is your heart. Your heart is sick. Take this magic pill to make it better.") And for most of them, it wasn't so much a monetary/health coverage issue...it was an issue with the doctor's attitudes. This isn't too surprising, considering Richmond's history on being tolerant and accepting on the surface and harboring a racist undertone. I remember, my parents had a devil of a time just trying to get established with their practice (circa 1983-84).

My parent's practice has since dissolved and my mom is working for cardiologist group as one of several on-call cardiologists. In this office, there's a healthy mix of races as far as the doctors go, but most of the nurses are white and the largest portion of patients are white, followed by black. My Dad works for the VA full-time and moonlights at local area hospitals in MD and VA. At the VA down in Richmond, his department has a healthy mix of races in doctors too and the patients there are about the same for white and black with a sprinkling of other races in there.