amna: A pair of new studies from
the journal of the American
medical association find that
the toll of racial disparities
in health for black Americans is
even starker than we knew.
That's true both in lives lost,
and an enormous economic cost as
well.
From 1999 to 2020, black
Americans experienced 1.63
million excess deaths compared
to white Americans.
This resulted in 80 million
years of life lost.
Covid widened the gap in deaths
even further, and the loss was
felt especially among infants
and older adults.
In terms of economic cost, the
Jama study found that in 2018,
racial health inequities cost
the U.S. An estimated $421
billion.
Around two-thirds of that cost
came from premature deaths.
To explain the significance of
this data, I'm joined Dr. Lisa
cooper, director of the Johns
Hopkins center for health equity
and the Bloomberg distinguished
professor at Johns Hopkins
university school of medicine.
Welcome and thank you for
joining us.
These numbers are absolutely
staggering when laid out this
way.
You have long studied these
issues.
Were you surprised by these
figures when you saw them?
Dr. Cooper: Unfortunately I was
not surprised, although I have
to say I was disappointed.
Because I was hoping that we
would have seen some improvement
over what we saw in the last
century.
It seems like that trends are
looking pretty much the same.
Amna: It is now well documented
that systemic racism that exists
specifically in our health care
system in America, how much of
these numbers is attributable to
that?
Dr. Cooper: It is important for
us to note that structural
racism is something that impacts
all of our institutions.
So I think racism and health
care contributes substantially
to these statistics but I think
racism throughout all of our
institutions and throughout all
of our policies is contributing
to these disparities because
really, those are the policies
and practices that determine
where people live, whether or
not they have gainful
employment, whether or not they
could get a good education,
whether they have access to
healthy food, and access to
health care.
All of these things shape
people's opportunities to live
healthy lives and determine
whether or not they die
prematurely.
Amna: These numbers are
staggering when you look at
them, but you still see a number
of patients in your clinic.
How do these numbers show up
dated day in these patients?
Dr. Cooper: They show up in the
young people I see.
I see people as young as 30, 35,
or 40 who already have
hypertension, who already are
obese, who already have had a
stroke.
I see people who are in middle
age who have diabetes and have
suffered amputations and can no
longer work.
A lot of these people are from
communities that have low income
, or they are African-Americans,
people who are hispanics.
I see people at very young ages
with diseases that normally you
would see in older people.
So you know, it is painful and
it is hard to see.
There are few people who
actually beat the odds, but the
odds are definitely not stacked
in their favor.
Amna: There is an economic bent
to this study as well.
The hundreds of billions of
dollars in cost of those racial
health inequities.
Why do you think that is an
important part of this argument?
Dr. Cooper: It is an important
part because in lots of ways,
our economy and our businesses,
they respond to things like
this.
I think people do not realize
the interconnection between
health and productivity.
Oftentimes they see them as
separate things.
Can see that our health is
connected to everything we do.
We cannot work, we cannot
innovate, we cannot compete
successfully with other
countries if we have poor
health.
And if we have poor health in
certain groups of people in our
country, that actually puts our
entire country at a
disadvantage.
It is important for people to
understand the scope of the
problem.
That it is human suffering and
it impacts society in so many
different ways.
But economically it is something
that a lot of people really
understand.
Amna: Dr. Cooper, what does it
take to turn these numbers
around?
Dr. Cooper: It is going to take
a lot of work.
But one thing we need to do is
to understand that we actually
have science to inform a lot of
these solutions, and what we
need to do is to use what we
know.
As we generate more information
and more science, we need to use
what we know already.
We know that early childhood
education improves health later
in life.
Support policies and practices
that do that.
Higher living wage, higher
income, or minimum wage will
improve economic opportunities
and the health of people in
their adulthood.
We know that changing the life
circumstances, living conditions
in neighborhoods, housing
quality, access to food, we know
all those things work to shape
health.
We know that providing universal
access to health care improves
health care outcomes.
Especially for those who can't
afford it based on who they work
for.
We just know a lot we are not
implementing because we need to
generate stronger political
will.
And doing that means engaging
with people in communities that
are impacted by health
disparities and making sure that
they are cynically engaged, and
that they have the know-how and
the involvement and the input at
the decision-making tables.
And in so doing, we will achieve
the goal, but it's something
that everyone needs to
understand that it impacts us
all.
Amna: That is Dr. Lisa cooper
joining us tonight.
Thank you.
Dr. Cooper: Thank you for having
me.
♪♪