are three times higher in some South Side ZIP codes than in the state. Childhood asthma exacerbations due to poor air quality and lack of access to care is higher in these areas as well.by UTHealth San Antonio and UT-Southwestern, life expectancy varies by many years from parts of the North Side to parts of the South Side of San Antonio.
The South Side has historically been, and continues to be, a medically underserved community. Black and brown neighborhoods were excluded from the economic stimulus programs that the state and federal governments were providing to help relieve the effects of the Great Depression.
If we want to reverse decades, even centuries of health care inequality and discrimination, we need to go where the disparities are and make the requisite investments of time, energy and resources until our goals are met. We need to move medicine to areas with the greatest needs to serve the least of these.
Dr. Lyssa Ochoa is a board-certified vascular surgeon and Founder of the SAVE Clinic. Alicia M. Reyes-Barriéntez, Ph.D., is assistant professor of political science at Texas A&M-University-San Antonio. Adriana Rocha García, Ph.D., is the councilwoman for District 4.