Health insurers will not be required to offer social services to patients like Hunter because federal law requires nontraditional Medicaid services to be optional. But California is enticing insurers with bigger payouts and higher state rankings.

Shortly after starting work at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, California, Dr. Christian Faulkenberry-Miranda (left) began seeing some babies with a rash on their tummies that looks like a blueberry muffin. But some babies with syphilis have no outward symptoms at all. (UCSF Fresno).

In the face of this research, medical students are urging schools to rethink curricula that treat race as a risk factor for disease. Briana Christophers, a second-year student at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said it makes no sense that race would make someone more susceptible to disease, although economic and social factors play a significant role.