Health Care Reform: Minorities Still Waiting

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Salon’s Joan Walsh recently called out white working class voters who wrongly think health care reform only helps people of color. On Thursday, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity released a fact sheet (PDF) that bolstered Walsh’s argument by explaining that recently passed reforms won’t improve the low quality treatment received by racial and ethnic minorities.

The bill won’t tackle social factors like poor food quality, toxic or pollutant-riddled neighborhoods, poverty, and other bad deals that are disproportionately dealt out to people of color and that contribute to their generally poorer health. The Kirwan Institute applauds the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for expanding (PDF) the number of health care centers in the country and insuring a projected 16 million people. But the Institute also points to health and care disparities affecting different ethnic communities. People of color are less likely to get lifesaving heart medications, bypass surgery, dialysis, or kidney transplants—but they are more likely to have feet and legs amputated for late-stage diabetes treatment. That means the battle for improved health care is not over. And more legislation is needed to address racial health disparities.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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