Single-Payer Health Reform: A Step Toward Reducing Structural Racism in Health Care

Abstract

Racial and income equality are too often absent from conversations about health care financing. Research continually exposes alarming health disparities in the United States, particularly impacting African Americans and Native Americans. These groups have lower life expectancies than non-Hispanic white Americans, and experience higher rates of most major causes of death including infant mortality, trauma, heart disease, and diabetes. Yet despite their greater need, access to care is worse for minority populations by most measures.