Where are the voices of color in the healthcare debate?

White Americans — especially politicians from rural mostly-white states like Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and North Dakota — are shaping the healthcare debate in Washington.

Those leaders are Republican as well as Democrat.

As the conversation moves forward, we need to hear more from lawmakers of color, Hispanics as well as African American.

Black babies die at twice the rate of white babies in America, mostly because their mothers can’t afford healthcare.

The average black man in America will die six years before he average white man — and no, it’s not because of violence.

A study by the Federal government found that nearly 90,000 men and women of color die each year in America because they don’t have the same quality of health-care as whites.

“The data showed that health insurance is a key barrier to health care among blacks and Hispanics, resulting in difficulties or delays in obtaining care…”

The truth is that many rural states with white-dominant populations already have a significant percentage of their population in government provided health programs.

Medicare, Medicaid, the VA and taxpayer-supported healthcare for government workers provide the lion’s share of healthcare in states like Wyoming and North Dakota.

But under America’s current lopsided system, those same benefits aren’t made available to working class African American and Hispanic families.

Many of those families are working full time, multiple jobs in some cases, but still can’t afford access to care.

We need to hear those concerns voiced deliberately. It’s especially important to hear from policy experts whether non-profit “collectives” can effectively reach people in urban neighborhoods.

It’s fair to ask why President Barack Obama — the nation’s first black president — has held town hall meetings on healthcare in white-majority communities, but never in an urban neighborhood.

America may be moving grudgingly toward being a post-racial society. But health is one of the major disparities that remain.

In the current debate, we need to confront that life-and-death reality head on.

Tags: health