SAN FRANCISCO — Racism is not just about discrimination and prejudice. Nor is it just about economic privileges for one racial or ethnic group. Racism is also about life and death.
According to a fact sheet distributed by the leading civil rights group in the United States, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), racism in the health care system is contributing to the premature death of African Americans.
The life expectancy for black men in the US is 66.1 years; for white males it is 73.9 years. The life expectancy for black women is 73.9 years compared to white females' life expectancy of 79.7 years.
Why are black people dying so much younger than whites? Some racists claim it is genetic; others say it is African Americans' lack of family values. The truth is, it is racism.
Caya Beth Lewis, NAACP national health coordinator, in the cover letter to the fact sheet, summarised the harsh statistics: "African Americans are 50 per cent more likely to die from heart disease, double the 25 per cent gap that existed in 1979; five times more likely to die from heart and kidney disease related to hypertension, as opposed to three times more likely in 1979; and 50 per cent more likely to die from breast cancer, up from relative parity in 1979". She added, "African-American men have the same life expectancy as a resident of Bangladesh".
Research shows that African Americans receive inferior heath care even if they have the same resources and health insurance as whites. Black cancer patients, for example, are less likely to receive pain medication in nursing homes. Black patients are less likely to be recommended for organ transplants. Black lung cancer patients are less likely to receive needed surgery.
A Harvard University study of 2200 Medicare (the government-subsidised health care for the elderly) patients in more than 500 hospitals found that African Americans received a lower quality of care when hospitalised for pneumonia and heart failure. The results were particularly telling because the care involved had nothing to do with patient preference.
Of course, all workers tend to receive inferior health care compared to the wealthy. But, across class lines, health care for African Americans is far worse.
The fact that the US lacks a national health care system compounds the problems. There are 45 million (out of a population of 270 million) US people without health care coverage. Approximately 20% of all blacks lack health insurance, nearly twice the percentage of uninsured whites.
The number of US people in poverty has risen in absolute numbers during the past seven years of economic "boom". This means people with jobs cannot afford health care.
Fewer and fewer companies provide fully paid health coverage. In most cases, workers have to pay a relatively modest $20 per month for their families to be covered, and as high as $400 per month for full coverage. If your income is barely above the official poverty level, it can't be done.
A recent study by the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University notes that there are more than 13 million US children living in poverty. This is 3 million more than in 1979. The hardest hit groups are former welfare recipients who have lost benefits under the Clinton administration. Here in California, children under the age of 18 living in poverty was 14.4% in 1980; today it is 23.3%.
Health care and poverty go hand and hand. Families with children in poverty tend to be the ones without access to health care. They also tend to be the ones with the lowest paying jobs and who live in the most run-down neighbourhoods.
It is no surprise that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the US health care system ranks 37th in the world — behind Third World countries like Morocco and Oman despite spending more per capita on health than any country on the WHO's list.
Ten per cent of the US population receives the best health care on the planet, the middle 80% gets mediocre care, and the bottom 5-10%, according to the WHO, "have health conditions as bad as sub-Saharan Africa". Those at the bottom are overwhelmingly people of colour, especially African Americans.
Institutional racism doubles the burden for African Americans. Blacks continue to live in poverty at a greater rate than whites, have the worse jobs and thus have the least amount of health care coverage.
What's the solution? The NAACP calls for universal health insurance. It supports a patient bill of rights. Lewis states, "We are working at all levels to preserve affirmative action to put more African Americans into medical and nursing schools and back into their communities to serve".
These are worthy goals, but it will require the support of broader society, especially the labour movement and its organisations, to win them.
BY MALIK MIAH