Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust to commemorate National Minority Health Month and to challenge Congress to take bold action to end health disparities that continue to plague our communities. Mr. Speaker, it is a sad fact that in America your race, class, and ZIP Code very much determine how long you will live and how healthy you will be; whether you will die of a heart attack in your forties or develop type 2 diabetes and lose a limb. These three factors speak volumes about your life and health. That is just wrong, and it is up to us to change that. From cradle to grave, and at every stage in between, people of color, low-income people, rural Americans, Native Americans, and first- generation Americans are sicker, receive less care, have less access to care, and, tragically, die sooner. In 2010, we took a major leap forward with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. This law has started to reduce these disparities by increasing access to care, ensuring mental healthcare, expanding research, and creating a pipeline of doctors and medical professionals from underrepresented communities. A major result of the ACA has been to cut the excessive risk of cancer death in half for African-American men. The same risk factor for Black women was reduced by seven points, according to the American Cancer Society's 2017 report.…”