National Minority Health Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I wish to ask my colleagues to join me in
recognizing April as National Minority Health Month. 2015 marks the
30th anniversary of this event, which provides us with an opportunity
to celebrate the progress we have made in addressing minority health
issues and health disparities in our country and to renew our
commitment to continue this critically important work.

Minorities now make up more than 35 percent of the American
population and that number is expected to rise in the future. However,
study after study has shown that minorities, especially African
Americans and Latinos, continue to face significant health disparities
in diseases such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and asthma.

Currently, over 26 million Americans suffer from diabetes. But
African Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with, and to die
from, diabetes compared to non-Hispanic whites. African Americans are
also more than 2\1/2\ times more likely to suffer from diabetes-related
end-stage renal disease than non-Hispanic whites, and are more likely
to have other complications, such as lower extremity amputations.

Obesity, which increases the risk of developing diabetes, is also
more prevalent in minority communities. Nearly 4 out of 5 African-
American women are overweight or obese, as well as 78 percent of
Hispanic men. It is no coincidence that, nationwide, 27.2 percent of
African Americans and 23.5 percent of Latinos lived below the Federal
poverty line in 2013. Limited means and the lack of access to fresh
fruits and vegetables in ``food deserts'' prevent many people from
accessing the nutrition they need to lead healthy lives.

Those living in impoverished areas are also much more likely to be
exposed to polluted air, which exacerbates respiratory conditions like
asthma. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, in
2012, African Americans were 20 percent more likely to have asthma
versus non-Hispanic whites.

HIV and AIDS, which are especially prevalent in low-income
neighborhoods with widespread drug use, continue to devastate
minorities across the country. African American women are 23 times more
likely to have AIDS than their white counterparts and Hispanic women
are four times more likely to be infected. In Maryland, African
Americans are diagnosed with HIV at more than 10 times the rate of
white Marylanders.

The role that access to resources, proper nutrition, and clean air
plays in our well-being cannot be overstated. According to a 2012
report about Baltimore neighborhoods from the Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies, those living in higher-income parts of
the city live, on average, nearly 30 years longer than their neighbors
in impoverished areas.

Fortunately, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, ACA, we have recently
made health coverage more accessible and affordable than it has been in
decades. By reducing the number of uninsured Americans across the
country, the ACA is working to address health inequalities. Between
2013 and 2014, the percentage of uninsured Latinos dropped by 7.7
percent, and the percentage of uninsured African Americans fell by 6.8
percent.

Also, as a result of the ACA, increased funding is available for
community health clinics. Mr. President, 300,000 Marylanders, including
more than 140,000 African Americans and 38,000 Latinos, are served by
these clinics.

Under the ACA, preventive services, which are critical to the early
detection and treatment of many diseases that disproportionately affect
minorities, are now free for 76 million Americans, including 1.5
million Marylanders.

In 2011, African American women in Maryland died from cervical cancer
at nearly twice the rate of white women. This disparity is simply
unacceptable and illustrates the importance of access to preventive
health care services: cervical cancer is preventable through regular
screening tests and follow-up and, when detected and treated early, it
is highly curable.

In our country, we are incredibly fortunate to have the National
Institutes of Health, NIH, which works tirelessly to improve the health
of all Americans, and the NIH's National Institute for Minority Health
& Health Disparities, NIMHD, has the specific mission of addressing
minority health issues and eliminating health disparities. I am proud
of my role in the establishment of the NIMHD, which supports
groundbreaking research at universities and medical institutions across
our country.

This critically important work ranges from enhancing our
understanding of the basic biological processes associated with health
disparities to applied, clinical, and translational research and
interventions that seek to address those disparities.

Some examples of recent NIMHD-funded projects include exploring
racial disparities in sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS, to inform
health education interventions about safe infant sleep practices, which
historically have been shown to be less effective among African
Americans; evaluating a community-based intervention to promote follow-
up among uninsured minority women with abnormal breast or cervical
cancer screening results; and developing a culturally tailored
lifestyle intervention to prevent diabetes among African American and
Hispanic adults.

Enhancing our understanding of the complex disparities across racial,
ethnic, and other minority populations and their specific risk factors
will help us develop better preventive health care, reduce long-term
health care costs, and improve the quality of life for millions of
Americans.

Minority health disparities cost many of our constituents their
health and even their lives, and they cost our health care system and
economy, as well. A 2009 joint center study found that direct medical
costs resulting from health inequities among minorities totaled nearly
$230 billion between 2003 and 2006. With indirect costs such as lowered
work productivity and lost tax revenue added to the equation, the tab
amounts to more than $1.24 trillion.

We owe it to our constituents to do everything in our power to fight
for affordable, high-quality health care for everyone. One's ethnic or
racial background should never determine the quality of his or her
health or the length of his or her life. This month, let us renew our
commitment to ensuring access to affordable, high-quality health care
for all Americans, and pledge to do everything we can to eliminate
health disparities in our country.

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