The higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, stroke and renal disease among African Americans and Latinos compared to whites added $15.6 billion to Medicare spending in 2009, according to a new study by the Urban Institute. A similar study by researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of Maryland found that eliminating health disparities for African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans would have saved an estimated $229 billion in U.S. medical care expenditures between 2002 and 2006. That study was commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Both studies are based on data from the national Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.