Health Data Shows Why This Proposal Is So Dangerous

Where Black people experience worse health outcomes, the cause is not some biological defect in Blackness. Racism shapes exposure, resources, treatment, stress, and access to care.

Racial health disparities often reflect conditions racism has produced: segregated neighborhoods, environmental hazards, inadequate insurance, unequal access to specialists, dangerous working conditions, food insecurity, provider bias, undertreatment, chronic stress, and generations of unequal access to wealth and medical care.

National averages can conceal these conditions. A program may appear successful overall while Black maternal mortality remains unacceptably high, an Indigenous community lacks access to treatment, or a particular Asian American population experiences a serious health burden hidden inside an overly broad category.

Disaggregated data allows us to ask questions that an overall average cannot answer: Who benefited? Who was left behind? Did the disparity narrow? Did the policy reach the people facing the greatest risk?

If the government cannot or will not answer those questions, it can declare success without demonstrating equity.

A policy that cannot be measured can be praised regardless of whether it works.