Government programs are WIDENING black-white health disparities

Thanks to better prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment, cancer mortality in the United States has fallen 33% since 1991, per data the American Cancer Society published this year.  But that progress has not been equally distributed. The cancer mortality rate for black people remains higher than for white people. Between 2000 and 2020, the gap between black and white outcomes grew wider for breast cancer and male colorectal cancer.  Overall, the average life expectancy at birth for black Americans is just under 71 years. Explore More For white people, it’s almost six years longer. There are many reasons for racial health disparities like these. But an underappreciated one is the consistent failure of Medicaid, the public insurance plan for the poor the federal government and the states jointly fund, to improve the health of its beneficiaries. For decades, federal-welfare programs like Medicaid have overpromised and underdelivered. That’s a particular problem for minorities, who are overrepresented among its beneficiaries. About 19% of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollees are black, whereas black people make up only about 14% of the general population. Per the US Department of Health and Human Services, 43% of black people have public health insurance, compared...