Healthcare Reform Must Include Health Equity

New Orleans, LA - As calls for solutions to the nation's healthcare crisis intensify, the National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM) has joined with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to address the widening racial gaps in health care access and quality that shorten the lives of African Americans.

Lifeline to Health Equity: Policies For Real Health Care Reform, a report commissioned by the Mayors and SEIU, recommends local, state and federal interventions to reduce health inequities. Left unaddressed, disparities have the potential to unravel even the best efforts to contain health care costs and improve the overall quality of care, the report warns.

"Any real healthcare reform must have equity at its core,"said Dian Palmer, an RN and president of SEIU 1199 Wisconsin, one of the largest SEIU local unions of healthcare workers.

"The toll that health inequities exact on our communities is too high. It's time for action at every level,"said NCBM President George Grace, of St. Gabriel, LA, during NCBM annual conference.

The partnership between the mayors and the nation's largest healthcare union underscores the push to place healthcare reform on the national agenda. SEIU members, more than 1 million caregivers - nurses, residents, dieticians, nurse's aides, nursing home workers and home healthcare aides - have launched a sweeping new election-year effort to win quality, affordable healthcare for all.

"SEIU members will be working to elect a new president with the mandate to fix the nation's broken healthcare system,"said Palmer. "Workers have pledged to petition the next president to assure reform is introduced within the first 100 days of the new administration."

The "death index"of inequity is strikingly skewed in cities and regions where black mayors govern, particularly in big cities and within the Delta region, where 50 percent of the NCBM members are based. The rate of black deaths generally surpasses the national average among many indicators of chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and pre-term births.

The top 10 cities (with populations over 350,000) governed by black mayors have higher death rates than the national average, according to The Big Cities Health Inventory of 54 major U.S. cities compiled by the National Association of City and County Health Officers (NACCHO). Nine of the 10 cities headed by black mayors are ranked among top the 25 cities with the highest mortality rates (Baltimore #5, Cleveland #7, Detroit #8, New Orleans #9, Columbus #12, Memphis #13, Philadelphia #16, Atlanta #21, Washington # 24). The NACCHO 2007 inventory reflects 2004 data.

Nine of the 10 cities governed by black mayors claim the highest percentages of preterm births - infants born too soon and too small - leading to higher death rates and more profound health challenges. New Orleans and Detroit are in the No. 1 slot and Baltimore is in third place of all 54 cities indexed. All 10 cities have percentages of pre-term births that surpassed the national average.

Nine out of the 10 cities governed by black mayors surpassed the national average rate of deaths by heart disease. In Columbus where blacks make up only 24 percent of the population, the rate of black deaths by diabetes is double the average rate for the city, and more than triples the national rate. In Cleveland, where the overall population ranks 5th in heart disease death rate, African American mortalities are almost twice the national average.

Half of NCBM members govern in six states that are near or within the Delta region - Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia - an area with the highest rates of uninsured citizens.

According to data from the Urban Institute and Families USA, an estimated 22,000 deaths across the nation were attributed to lack of health insurance. The six states that make up the Delta region claimed 27 percent of the national total.

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