UN report on the ‘Third World’ in the U.S.
By
Fred Goldstein
Published Sep 18, 2005 9:09 PM
At the very moment that the profound racism
and class oppression in the U.S. has been highlighted by the disastrous toll on
the poor, largely African-American population of the Gulf Coast, the United
Nations has issued a report about racism and poverty affecting the U.S.
health-care system.
The highly prestigious UN report has singled out the
U.S. health-care system as being fraught with such inequality that sections of
the population are at health-care levels comparable to that of countries
suffering from the long-term effects of colonialism.
The U.S. leads the
world in health-care spending on a per capita basis. But “U.S. public
health indicators are marred by deep inequalities linked to income, health
insurance coverage, race, ethnicity, geography and—critically—access
to care,” said the 2005 annual UN Human Development Report
(HDR).
The Indian state of Kerala “has an urban infant death rate
lower than that for African Americans in Washington, D.C.” And Malaysia,
like India a country long ruled and kept in a state of underdevelopment by
British colonialism, with an average income one quarter that here, “has
achieved the same infant death rate as the United States,” according to
the HDR.
Although the U.S. is the richest nation on earth, “infant
mortality trends are especially troublesome,” continues the report.
“Since 2000, a half century of sustained decline of infant death rates
slowed and then reversed. The infant mor tality rate in the U.S. is now higher
than for many other industrial countries.”
Racism is a major
feature of the inequality in health care. “African American mothers are
twice as likely to give birth to a low birth weight baby. Their children are
twice as likely to die before their first birthday.”
The lack of
health-care coverage is cited as a major cause of the declining health of the
population. Over 45 million were uninsured in 2000, one in six of the
non-elderly population. And racism deeply affects health-care coverage.
“Hispanic Americans are more than twice as likely to be uninsured as white
Americans and 21 percent of African Americans have no health insurance,”
according to the report.
“One study finds that eliminating the gap
in health care between African Americans and white Americans would save nearly
85,000 lives a year.”
Poverty and lack of health care for all races
and nationalities kills. “The Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000
Americans die prematurely each year solely because they lack health
insurance.” Many of the uninsured have no place to go for vitally needed
health care. And when they are admitted to hospitals, they are far more likely
to die.
The high-tech revolution in healthcare is out of reach for
millions of poor workers and oppressed people.
The study of deterioration
of health care in the U.S. is only the tip of the iceberg. Declining health care
as a social indicator linked to poverty, race and nationality is not isolated
from other basic conditions of life among the people. Those with no health care
or poor coverage generally have low incomes and live from paycheck to paycheck;
have poor housing; lack social services; are pushed into the poorest
neighborhoods; suffer the most police brutality; are most likely to be in
prison; and are disproportionately African American and Latino, including many,
many immigrant workers, documented and undocumented.
The findings of the
UNHDR are consistent with the racist oppression of Black people during the
destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the overwhelming toll it took on the
African American population of New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast. It is
estimated that 130,000 families had no cars in New Orleans. The likelihood is
that families that cannot afford a car cannot afford health insurance. They
lived in the poorest neighborhoods, with the highest poverty rates. Many of
those 130,000 families who were on the roofs in the Lower Ninth Ward and other
poor Black neighborhoods probably were reflected in the UN statistics about lack
of health care in the U.S.
They are not isolated, either. Look in any
urban center, from St. Louis to Pittsburgh, New York to Los Angeles, and the
same so-called “Third World” conditions, that is, neocolonial
conditions, exist for African Americans, Latinos and other
nationalities.
The vast majority of the people in these neighborhoods are
workers, employed or unemployed. The suffering revealed by Katrina and
documented by the UN report points in the direction of renewed struggle against
racism, national oppression and class exploitation.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE