Racial disparities in health care; a pitch for single-payer

As Vijay Das of Public Citizen and physician Adam Gaffney observed in a CNN op-ed this week:

[A]cross the nation, black males in 2010 had a life expectancy almost five years lower than white males; black women could expect to live three years fewer than white females. In addition to inequalities in health outcomes (which have many roots), disparities persist in health care access. According to a 2013 report [from the Kaiser Family Foundation], blacks and Hispanics have substantially higher uninsured rates than whites. And while many are pinning their hopes on the Affordable Care Act to address such inequalities, the act won't remedy the many deeply rooted racial injustices in America's health care system.

Das and Gaffney place part of the blame on the Supreme Court's ruling that states could opt out of the Medicaid expansion (whose status we've recently discussed, here).

But ultimately, they argue, the only way to close the racial health-care gap is through a single-payer Medicare-for-all system. Read the op-ed here.

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