On the recordMay 6, 2013
Let me thank you, Mr. Horsford, for yielding time this evening, and thank you for your leadership not only here in the Congress but in the Congressional Black Caucus. You have come to this Congress, and you've done so much in such a short period of time. Thank you, Mr. Jeffries and Ms. Fudge as well, for your leadership. But, Mr. Speaker, I want to start this conversation this evening by talking about a 1985 report. President Ronald Reagan was President at the time, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement. They called health disparities in the United States of America ``an affront both to our ideals and to the ongoing genius of American medicine.'' It's disgusting, Mr. Speaker, that in this year, 2013, health disparities still exist in the richest and most powerful country in the world. African Americans are disproportionately less healthy. Life- threatening diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease are ravaging our population. Oftentimes African Americans that live in rural communities, like the one that I represent in North Carolina, don't have insurance, and they have difficulty finding a regular primary care doctor, and so they go without an annual physical or regular checkups. Sometimes their only interaction with a health care provider is when they call 911 because their unchecked blood pressure resulted in a heart attack or stroke. By then it's too late.…
