Health care reform vital to African Americans
22 05 09 - 19:16
Healthcare Reform Important to Blacks, Says Obama
By Cash Michaels - Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal
If there is any population where it is vital not only that healthcare costs be lowered, but access to quality healthcare be improved, experts agree, it’s the African American community. President Barack Obama knows the need firsthand from his former days as a community organizer on the streets of Southside Chicago, and First Lady Michelle Obama’s work as a hospital administrator there.
“Over the past several years the costs of healthcare have increased dramatically,” then Sen. Obama, running in the general election for president last fall, told the Black Press in a teleconference. “The average premium has gone up by 100 percent; the average deductible has gone up 30 percent just this year. But obviously the African American community continues to have poor health and receive lower quality healthcare than other Americans, more likely to be uninsured.”
Obama’s White House reached out to the Black Press last week in an effort to emphasize “the importance of lowering healthcare costs and the long-term impacts on the African American community.”
According to Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, the president knows that “reducing costs is particularly important for the African American community because on average, they spend a higher percentage of their income on healthcare costs (16.5 percent) compared to their White counterparts (12 percent).”
“Despite spending more of their income on medical care, African Americans continue to face disparities in terms of the [quality of care] they get,” DeParle told Black reporters during the Thurs., May 14 White House teleconference. “Those [disparities] are brought about because [Blacks] tend to visit hospitals that provide lower quality care, which, of course, is directly attributable to the lack of financial resources for the hospital.”
DeParle continued, “We want to make sure that controlling spending is about more than just saving money. It’s also got to be about ensuring that we provide the best patient-centered healthcare system that promotes health and prevents illness.”
Obama has made it clear that the key to solving the nation’s long-term economic problems is lowering spiraling healthcare costs to consumers. Democratic leaders in Congress have pledged to have healthcare reform legislation completed, and on the president’s desk, before lawmakers break for summer recess in August.
“Nearly 46 million Americans don’t have any health insurance at all. We know that there are millions of families that are struggling to pay skyrocketing premiums, and businesses are sacrificing growth and innovation to cover healthcare costs,” DeParle said.
“The issue of [rising] healthcare costs is especially troubling in the African American community, where African Americans suffer from higher percentages of chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes, that are due in part to a lack of access to quality care.”
President Obama met with healthcare industry leaders last week, reportedly to gain their commitment to reduce the annual healthcare spending growth by an average 1.5 percent a year for the next 10 years.
In fall 2008, Obama, then a Democratic presidential candidate, told Black reporters via teleconference call that if elected, he would push for targeted prevention measures in the African American community.
“The emphasis on prevention will include addressing disparities. We’re making sure that there are regular screenings for things like prostate cancer and breast cancer that occur at higher rates in the African American community. That all of those [prevention efforts] are adequately funded on the front end so that we can save money on the back end,” Obama said.
In the $787 billion stimulus package that the president signed into law in February, $1 billion was designated to fund prevention efforts and public health campaigns across the states. More than $2 billion was allotted to the National Institutes of Health for further research into chronic diseases.