Racial Disparities in Healthcare and Health

The COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed national attention to the profound and persistent racial differences in American health outcomes. The Centers for Disease Control’s national snapshot of health in 2019 painted a troubling picture prior to the pandemic.1 This report demonstrated large differences in life expectancy, infant mortality, and maternal mortality between Black and White populations. In 2018, the life expectancy for the Black population was 74.7 years compared to 78.6 years for the White population. COVID-19 exacerbated these stark findings. By November 2021, the Centers for Disease Control reported a 1.9 times higher mortality rate for the Black population and a 2.1 times higher mortality rate for the Latino population compared to the White population. Between 2019 and 2020, life expectancy dropped 3 years for the Latino population, 2.9 years for the Black population, and 1.2 years for the White population.