Fact Sheet: Health Care for Black Families Is on the Line as GOP Cuts Drive a Health Care Crisis — Protect Our Care
Black Americans are being forced to navigate a health care crisis created at the hands of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. Access to affordable, quality care is one of the most powerful tools for. . .
Black Americans are being forced to navigate a health care crisis created at the hands of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. Access to affordable, quality care is one of the most powerful tools for addressing the systemic and structural barriers that contribute to health outcomes in Black communities, including themortality gapbetween Black and white Americans. Yet, Donald Trump and Republicans chose tax breaks for billionaires over affordable health care. Last year, they slashed $1 trillion in Medicaid and ripped away health care tax credits, driving up health care costs for millions of families. These cuts threaten the coverage and care that have helpedreduceBlack uninsured rates andexpandBlack Americans’ access to quality health care. Black communities will bear the brunt of these cuts. As premiums skyrocket, coverage is ripped away, and providers face growing financial strain, theracial inequitiesin the American health care system will only deepen. At a time when the country should be working to close racial health disparities, Trump and Republicans are widening them, making it harder for Black Americans to afford coverage, access care, and stay healthy. By the Numbers:Black Americans remain1. 5 timesmore likely to be uninsured than white people. Black women are nearlythree timesmore likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. Black Americans are2. 5 timesmore likely to be hospitalized for complications of diabetes and have nearlythree timeshigher rates of emergency department visits for the disease than their white counterparts. Black Americans are30 percentmore likely to die from heart disease and30 percentmore likely to have high blood pressure than their white counterparts. Communities with the highest proportion of Black residents facefour timesthe odds of hospital closures compared to those with the fewest Black residents. MedicaidMedicaid is the largest health insurance program in the country, providing health care for over77 millionAmericans of all races. It is a critical source of health care and financial security, especially for Black families in rural and urban America who experience poverty at a higher rate than white Americans and remain less likely to have access to quality care, an important driver of health. Republicans know this and passed over $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid anyway, as well as instituting strict work requirements. Work requirements put communities of color atgreater risk of losing coveragethan their white counterparts, anddisproportionatelyaffect Black mothers and families; additionally, for people of color, loss of health coverage due to Medicaid cuts will be especially compounded by Republicans raising premiums and health care costs. Medicaid Reduces Disparities In Coverage. As of 2024, Black Americans make up13. 7 percentof the U. S. population, but about20 percentof Medicaid enrollees. Children of color also disproportionately rely on Medicaid, making upnearly 52 percentof all American children, butnearly 67 percentof the children on Medicaid. This coverage not only provides health coverage for these children, but also providessignificant long-term benefits, such as being less likely to be hospitalized and more likely to graduate from high school and college. Increasing Medicaid coverage is the single most important action to expand access to quality care and improve health outcomes. Medicaid Expansion Saves Black Lives. Created by the ACA, Medicaid expansion extends coverage to adults 65 and under who earn up to 135 percent of the federal poverty line. Expansion has been shown to save lives anddrastically reduceracial/ethnic health coverage disparities. In the remaining 10 holdout states that haven’t expanded Medicaid,6 in 10people in the coverage gap are people of color. States that expanded their Medicaid programs saw a51 percentreduction in the gap between uninsured white and Black adults after expansion, and a45 percentreduction between white and Hispanic/Latino adults. Medicaid Improves Financial Security for Families of Color. In 2023, the annual median household income for white Americans was nearly$30,000higher than that of Black households. Over the past decade, research has shown that the gap in medical debt between Medicaid expansion and holdout states has grown by approximately30 percent. In 2020, Americans living in holdout states carried an average of$375more in medical debt than their counterparts in expansion states. Poverty can produce negative long-term consequences forchildrenand adults alike. Medicaid has long been considered one of the most effectiveanti-povertyprograms in the nation, and its expansion has significantlyimprovedhealth outcomes for people of color. In a nation where Americans areone medical billaway from being pushed into poverty, Medicaid serves as a lifeline not only for health care, but for economic stability. Trump and Republicans Are Driving Hospitals, Clinics, and Nursing Homes Into the Ground. Trump’s Big, Ugly bill cut over$500 billionfrom hospitals and other essential care facilities. As a result, over330 rural hospitals,100 urban hospitals,570 nursing homes, andnearly 200 Planned Parenthood health centersacross the country are at risk of closure. Thirteen hospitals, 37 maternity wards, and 298 clinics have announced or closed since the passage of the bill. Already, communities with the highest proportion of Black residents facedfour timesthe odds of hospital closures compared to those with the fewest Black residents; these cuts will only further exacerbate an access to care crisis that has been growing across the country. Hospital closures lead to crowded emergency rooms, longer ambulance waits, longer hospital stays, fewer available patient beds, and higher patient mortality among Americans. Worse still, Trump and Republicans’ hospital closures will raise prices for a hospital stay by an average of$500at nearby facilities that remain open. Some rural counties are even forced tohike taxesto make up for the funding shortfall. The impact won’t be limited to rural areas, however. An analysis by Harvard researchers found that85 percentof hospitals most exposed to the Trump-GOP Medicaid cuts are inurban areas. These hospital closure risks are not colorblind either; around 20 percent of all hospitals at risk of closure are within just five states where 42 percent of Black Americans reside.