Washington, DC– The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of 150,000 African-American churches comprising over 27.7 million churchgoers, is calling for the 118th The US Congress should take action against the catastrophic health of black Americans. According to the Washington Post article entitled Black communities have experienced a wave of excess deaths over the past two decades (tinyurl.com/4x7dyku9) There have been over 1.6 million deaths in America’s black communities (not including COVID-19 deaths). Compared to their white counterparts over the past two decades. That’s a devastating loss costing hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two recent studies from the JAMA Network that build on a generation of research on health care disparities and injustices.
Rev. Anthony Evans, President of NBCI, states emphatically, “The Black Church must stand up and use its 27.7 million votes to protect Black health in this 2024 election.”
Since the 1985 Heckler Report, issued by then-Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Margaret Heckler, there have only been words and studies. Thanks to expert analysis, for the first time since her report, the National Black Health Agenda has begun to turn those words into solid, concrete actions, starting in 2025. We believe a $2.25 trillion down payment is a good starting point.
The reduction in quality of life and the psychosocial and economic burden resulting from lack of access to quality and affordable health care is a major concern for 42 million African-American voters. We will vote according to our health interests, regardless of political party.
Our nation must ask itself the critical question: Do black lives really matter? Why is the United States unwilling to spend the money necessary to curb 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 this American tragedy is unfolding. The Black Church demands that the U.S. Congress take immediate action to fix this problem. Rev. Anthony Evans continues, “The Black Church is taking this bold step forward in this debate. Our discussions over the last 30 years have always been about words, and as far as we know, words have never healed anyone. That is why we are making this extraordinary and urgent demand that the United States Congress pay attention to the value of African American humanity. The price for that is $2.25 trillion, beginning in 2025, over the next ten years. This country must finally make good on the promissory note it gave to African Americans over 500 years ago!”
Joseph L. Webster, Sr., MD, MBA, FACP, clinical director of the NBCI American Clinical Health Disparity Commission (ACHDC), says, “At this critical moment for the survival of humanity as we know it, the ‘church’ has once again called on the government to ‘heal the country.'”
This National Black Health Agenda, proposed and hereby presented by NBCI and its collaborative partners – CME Outfitters and the American Clinical Health Disparity Commission – is the first comprehensive agenda explicitly focused on the holistic HEALTH of African Americans in the United States of America. This National Black Health Agenda is not only timely, but is also “morally correct” and “fiscally responsible” and deserves the full support of all representative branches of our government – including Congress and the President of the United States of America. Anything less than enthusiastic support would be unpatriotic and would do a disservice to today’s citizens and their children for future generations. Furthermore, it will cost America over $250 billion annually until the inequality gap is closed. Rev. Evans and the NBCI team deserve praise for this transformative document that, if implemented, will positively change the lives of millions while putting the “moral trajectory” of this Republic back on a course that will truly make it not just a powerful nation, but a great one.”
The Black Church will not let this happen without a fight. We will use our moral power and authority by casting our vote. If necessary, we will raise this issue of the value of Black humanity at the ballot box in 2024. Over the next decade, we will use multiple strategies to make Congress aware of the urgency of this crisis.
Every leading expert on health inequalities, including the Center for Budgetary Priorities, has said this investment will strengthen our country and produce tremendous 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 agreed that a huge investment in the health of African Americans is critical to the moral and economic future of our country.
These two leading African-American experts, with more than 100 years of combined knowledge, have created a plan for our country to dramatically reduce negative health impacts and put us on a path to eliminating health disparities in the next 20 years.
They would also agree that the efforts outlined in this report by Rev. Anthony Evans and leading African-American clinicians are a good start and an important gesture toward a strong beginning, translating 50 years of government reports and inaction on health disparities into concrete action.
ABOUT NBCI
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) is a coalition of 150,000 African American and Latino churches committed to eliminating racial inequalities in health care, technology, education, housing and the environment. NBCI’s mission is to provide essential health information to all of its members, community members, churches and the public. NBCI uses faith and sound health science and partners with major organizations and agencies to reduce racial disparities in the areas identified above. NBCI’s programs are based on credible statistical analysis, science-based strategies and techniques, and methods that work, providing faith-based, unconventional and innovative solutions to intractable economic and social problems.
