THE BACKSTORY
It’s a stark fact that quickly puts the gravity of the health status of African Americans into sharp focus: If you’re born black in this country, your life expectancy is shorter than that of whites. In fact, blacks have higher death rates than whites for diabetes, cancer, heart attack, stroke, HIV/AIDS, asthma, influenza and homicide.
Lack of access to healthcare and negative experiences within the health care system contribute to these disparate outcomes for Black Americans. Compounding factors such as the stress of dealing with racism or living in low-income areas with poor air quality has been shown to increase diseases such as high blood pressure and asthma, respectively.
With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, 38 million African Americans will have coverage in 2016 that they would not have had without the act, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The act also increases the income guidelines to be eligible for Medicaid. Insurers are also required to cover wellness prevention tests such as HIV/AIDS for at-risk populations, colonoscopy and blood pressure and diabetes screening among other things at no additional cost to the insured.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
In 2010, 44 percent of African-Americans in comparison to 62 non-Hispanic Whites used employer-sponsored health insurancel.
Twenty-eight percent of African-Americans in comparison to 11 percent of non-Hispanic Whites relied on Medicaid, government-funded health insurance for the very poor.
Almost 21 percent of African-Americans in comparison to about 12 percent of whites were uninsured.
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, blacks received worse quality care than whites on 41% of 182 quality measures. Latinos received worse care than whites for 39% of 171 quality measures.*
The prevalence of diabetes among blacks is 70 percent higher than among whites.
The death rate for cardiovascular disease is 30 percent higher among black than whites.
The infant mortality rate is 2.3 times higher among blacks compared to whites.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control (except *: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
AN EXPERT SAYS…
Grant Jones, founder and executive director of the Center for African-American Health in Denver, wants blacks to know they are not predestined to poor health. Lifestyle and culture play a big factor.
“When it comes to health, our family history loads the gun and our culture and lifestyle pulls the trigger,” added Jones.
For example, doctors may screen for cancer earlier if you have a family history of the disease. If you have a family history of cardiovascular disease, doctors might treat a case of high blood pressure more aggressively.
Socio-economic status and education are “cultural determinants” to good health, said Jones.
“Take a single parent mom working multiple jobs. She might understand that fast food is not the best choice but the options are limited especially if they live in a location that is a ‘food desert,’” said Jones.
“The easier choice for this mom is to big up three Big Macs for $4 as opposed to shopping and preparing a $10 meal. Our families are forced into choices they know are not the best choices.”
Education helps people to understand that the easy choices are not really easy. They could have deadly consequences. Efforts must also be made to bring more fresh fruits and vegetables to areas that are now food deserts.
The same issues arise with environmental racism. African Americans may live in areas with less healthy air for example, which can exacerbate asthma.
Part of the solution is that African Americans must begin to value their health before they get sick. It’s not the best idea to wait until there is a stroke or heart attack to begin exercising, said Jones. It’s also going to take repeated reminders from credible messengers such as the church, parents and leaders to improve the health of African Americans.
Michelle Obama’s child anti-obesity efforts is a great example of the type of education efforts that are necessary to make a difference,
Policy changes such as the Affordable Care Act, which will provide coverage to millions of uninsured African Americans and focus on preventative care. The act will allow many more blacks to have a regular primary care doctor, which is a key to good health, said Jones.
“We need to think about health care like crime. We can take the approach of building more and more prisons or we can swim upstream and focus our efforts on prevention.,” said Jones.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
African Americans knowing more about their family medical history
African Americans treasuring their good health and think about it while they are still healthy.
Attention paid to the messages about health that we translate to our children.
Positive attitudes about a healthy lifestyle to our children, neighbors and community at-large.
Increased effort to decrease health care disparities among African Americans.
A declaration of war on diseases that can be prevented such as obesity, diabetes and HIV/AIDS that are having a devastating and disproportionate impact on black Americans.
An improvement in the level of primary care available to African Americans.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Tuesday, September 25th 2012 at 2:38PM
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