This Black History Month, it’s clear that Black Americans continue to face disproportionate health risks, and Republican policies are making it worse to enrich billionaires and big corporations. Under Donald Trump and Republican leadership, health care inequities that Black communities have faced for generations are being deepened by deliberate political choices. From slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to undermining public health and blocking research on racial disparities, Trump and congressional Republicans have pushed policies that worsen health outcomes and inequities for Black Americans. These decisions translate into higher mortality rates, preventable hospital closures, and more barriers to care for Black families. The impact is clear: Republicans’ health care chaos is costing Black Americans their health, their security, and their lives.
The State Of Health Care For Black Americans
Health care is a vital means for eliminating the systemic and structural barriers Black communities brave every single day. Access to quality and affordable health care is not only a right, but it is essential to mitigate direct forms of discrimination that are a cause of nearly half the mortality gap between Black and White Americans. While progress has been made over the years, inequities and inequalities in American health care persist:
- Black Americans remain 1.5 times more likely to be uninsured than white people.
- Black women are nearly three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women.
- Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for complications of diabetes and have nearly three times higher rates of emergency department visits for the disease than their white counterparts.
- Communities with the highest proportion of Black residents face four times the odds of hospital closures compared to those with the fewest Black residents.
The Effects of Republican Health Care Sabotage on Black Communities
Trump and the GOP’s continued attacks on programs like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid, which reduce Black uninsured rates and increase Black Americans’ access to quality health care, are exacerbating the already stark racial inequities in American health care.
- Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill cut over $500 billion to hospitals; now over 20 percent of all hospitals at risk of closure are within just five states where 42 percent of Black Americans reside.
- Republicans doubling or tripling premium costs for 20 million Americans has put health care out of reach for over one million people, with Black people likely experiencing the largest increase in uninsurance.
- Trump and Republicans slashing nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid has directly put the around 65 percent of births by Black mothers covered under Medicaid at risk of worse care and worse outcomes.
- The massive Medicaid cuts coupled with work requirements will disproportionately affect Black families, who make up 13.7 percent of the U.S. population but about 20 percent of Medicaid enrollees; they will have a much greater risk of losing coverage than their white counterparts.
Protect Our Care Resources