Juneteenth 2008 celebrated, as it always does, the day in 1865 on which slaves in Texas
learned that they had been emancipated. But this year’s Juneteenth
celebration also was a day of action for Milwaukee’s African-American
residents and health care professionals who want the next president and
elected officials to address the wide racial disparities in health
care.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Healthcare
United and their allies were at the Juneteenth gathering on June 19,
where they registered voters and urged Milwaukeeans to make health care
an important electoral issue. “We have to actively engage in the
political process,” said Clarene Anderson of the Black Health Coalition
of Wisconsin. “We have to force the change that needs to occur.”
Before
the event, national SEIU representatives stopped in Milwaukee as part
of a national “Road to Health Care” bus tour aimed at drawing attention
to how members of racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately
disadvantaged by America’s broken health care system.
Minorities make up half of America’s
47 million uninsured, and health issues such as cancer, diabetes,
asthma and low-birth-weight infants are especially challenging for
African Americans. Yet having insurance doesn’t mean that African
Americans receive medical care that is on par with that of whites. The
SEIU’s newest report on health care found that whites receive
higher-quality treatment than African Americans with the same income
level and health insurance coverage.
These factors create
poorer health outcomes for illnesses such as diabetes (diabetic African
Americans are more likely to have a limb amputated), asthma (African
Americans are more than three times as likely to die of it than whites)
and cancer (African Americans are more likely than whites to die after
diagnosis).
Alicia Treadwell, an African-American home health
care worker in Milwaukee who is uninsured and faced massive medical
bills after falling on ice this winter, said African Americans put off
seeing a doctor until it’s too late. “By the time we leave the doctor
we have to make funeral arrangements,” Treadwell said.
Solutions
SEIU and its allies are pushing for a “new health care system for everyone,” said Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 1199 Wisconsin. Universal health care coverage, such as the Senate Democrats’ Healthy Wisconsin plan, will “absolutely” be introduced again next year, promised state Sen. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee).
He
said that the expansion of BadgerCare has been “key and crucial” to
providing health care for kids, but that universal coverage would help
uninsured workers such as Treadwell who can’t afford health insurance
independently.
But Milwaukee’s African-American community
faces barriers to health care that go beyond insurance. The health care
infrastructure of central Milwaukee, which had thrived prior to the
1980s, has turned into a medical wasteland.
Health clinics,
doctor’s offices and hospitals are lacking in the predominantly
African-American North and Northwest Sides of Milwaukee, since the
large hospital chains have preferred to expand in the suburban areas,
where doctors can compete for wealthy—and predominantly white—patients.
Coggs
said that community health clinics, such as the expanding Isaac Coggs
Heritage Health Center, are serving more Milwaukeeans than they can
handle. “These residents need more access to health care,” Coggs said.
Perry Margoles, who runs the Milwaukee Immediate Care Center, 1971 W.
Capitol Drive, said his clinic has survived because it draws clients
from the neighborhood and the rest of the county who want quality,
affordable health care in a convenient location. Margoles said only a
fraction of African Americans in the city use Medicaid or BadgerCare;
the vast majority has insurance and does not go to community clinics.
The
clinic’s nonprofit business model was studied and refined over a number
of years, Margoles said, and patient revenues account for 85%-90% of
the clinic’s operating revenues. It combines primary care and urgent
care, and has extended hours (8 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-
9 p.m. on Sunday) and a reasonable per-visit fee of $75. The clinic
provides free blood-pressure checks, which Margoles estimates averts
eight to 10 heart attacks and strokes a month. Margoles said he wants
the clinic’s doctors and staff to take time with each patient to assess
his or her unaddressed health concerns, such as diabetes or high blood
pressure, in addition to colds and flu, for example.
Margoles
said this can be a costly way to treat patients, but it pays off by
enhancing a client’s long-term health and well-being. “I want our
doctors to practice good health care, to take their time with each
patient and not to compromise their care,” Margoles said.
What’s your take? Write: editor@shepex.com or comment on this story online at
www.expressmilwaukee.com.
Photo: Patrick Flaherty, Wisconsin
coordinator for Healthcare United; and Bill Martin, home health care
worker, registering voters at Milwaukee's Juneteenth celebration
SaraM
