Black Caucus pushes Obama on health equity

By Glenn Thrush  |  The Politico  |  Link to article
June 08, 2009

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are pressuring President Obama to take a more aggressive approach on eliminating health disparities in the health care reform legislation working its way through Congress.

In his June 2nd letter to key Congressional stakeholders, Obama came out for a controversial public insurance option and emphasized the need for greater efficiency and cost containment to Medicaid and Medicare.

But there was nary a peep about the well-documented differences in the quality of care among racial, ethnic and income groups -- and that caught the attention of the CBC.

On Friday, the Caucus sent a letter to the President urging him to address the disproportionate lack of insurance in the African-American community, in addition to persistent problems with the quality of care in low-income neighborhoods.

Numerous studies have shown that black and Hispanic patients suffer higher mortality rates on a range of treatable illnesses. Only a fraction of those disparities are attributable to low insurance rates.

CBC Chairwoman Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) asked the president to "institute aggressive solutions to the nation's current plight with health disparities," arguing that "health equity" needs to be a central part of the plan.

Next week the 75-plus member Tricaucus, which includes the CBC, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Asian-Pacific Island members, will introduce its own alternative next week that will include "sliding-scale" subsidies for working poor families and funding to pay for uncovered costs like deductibles.