By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of 150,000 African American churches, which constitute over 27.7 million churchgoers, are calling for the 118th US Congress to take action against the stark state of health amongst Black Americans.
According to the Washington Post article titled, Black Communities Endured a Wave of Excess Deaths in the Past 2 Decades, America’s Black communities experienced an excess of 1.6 million deaths (not counting the COVID-19 deaths) compared with their white counterparts during the past two decades. This is a devastating loss that comes at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two recent studies by the JAMA Network that build on a generation of research into health disparities and inequity.
Rev. Anthony Evans, President of the NBCI, forcedly states, “The Black Church must stand up and use its 27.7 million votes to protect the health of Black people in this 2024 election.”
Since the 1985 Heckler Report, issued by then-Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Margaret Heckler, there have been only words and studies. With expert analysis, for the first time since her report, the National Black Health Agenda has moved to change those words into solid, concrete action, starting in 2025. We believe a $2.25 trillion down payment is a good starting point.
Reducing the quality of life, psychosocial, and economic burden resulting from lack of access to high-quality, affordable healthcare is a primary concern of forty-two million African American voters. We will vote according to our health interests irrespective of political party.
Our nation must ask the critical question: Do Black lives truly matter? Why is the United States unwilling to spend the necessary money to curtail and eliminate health disparities and death and dying after 500 years in this country? What is the central question here? Racism is the primary reason for the unfolding of this American tragedy. The Black Church demands that the US Congress does something to fix this problem immediately. Rev. Anthony Evans further states, “The Black Church is making this bold step forward in this debate. Our discussions over the last 30 years have all been about words, and the last time we checked- words did not heal anyone. This is why we are taking this extraordinary and powerful demand that the Congress of the United States pay attention to the value of African American humanity. The price tag is $2.25 trillion starting in 2025 over the next ten years. This country must finally make real the promissory note issued to African Americans it gave African Americans over 500 years ago!”
Joseph L. Webster, Sr., MD, MBA, FACP Clinical Director, NBCI American Clinical Health Disparity Commission (ACHDC) says, “At this pivotal moment in the survival of humankind as we know it, the ‘church’ again has stepped up to call upon the seat of Government to ‘heal the land.’”
This National Black Health Agenda proposed and hereby presented by the NBCI and its collaborative partners –CME Outfitters and the American Clinical Health Disparity Commission – is the first comprehensive Agenda explicitly designed to address the holistic HEALTH of African Americans in the United States of America. This National Black Health Agenda is not only timely, but it is both ‘morally correct’ and ‘fiscally responsible’ and deserves the full backing of all representative components of our government – including Congress and the President of the United States of America. Anything less than enthusiastic endorsement will be unpatriotic and a great disservice to today’s citizens and their children for future generations. Additionally, it will cost America over $250 Billion annually until the disparity gap is closed. Rev. Evans and the NBCI team are to be commended for this transformative document that, if implemented, will positively change the lives of millions and simultaneously change the ‘moral trajectory’ of this Republic back on a course that will truly make it not just a mighty nation, but a Great Nation.”
The Black Church will not allow this to happen without a fight. We will utilize our moral power and authority by exercising the vote. If necessary, we will force this issue of the value of Black humanity at the ballot box in 2024. Over the next ten years, we will apply multiple strategies to awaken Congress to the urgency of this crisis.
Every leading expert in health disparities, including the Center for Budgetary Priorities, has said that this investment will strengthen our nation and produce huge savings. Dr. David Satcher, former director of the Health Leadership Institute and Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at Morehouse School of Medicine and the 16th Surgeon General of the United States, and Dr. Thomas LaVeist, Dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, both realized that an enormous investment into African American health is critical to the moral, economic future of our nation.
These two leading African American experts, who have a combined wisdom of over 100 years, have created a blueprint for our country to drastically curtail negative health outcomes and start us on a path to eliminating health disparities over the next 20 years.
They would also agree that the efforts put forth in this report by Rev. Anthony Evans and leading African American clinicians are a good start and a critical gesture for a strong beginning. Thus, 50 years of government reports and non-action on health disparities will have been turned into concrete action.
ABOUT NBCI
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) is a coalition of 150,000 African American and Latino churches working to eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, education, housing, and the environment.
