FYI - Press release from the A. Philip Randolph Institute --
(Note: Although it is not the oldest organization representing Black 
workers in the US,
what the A. Philip Randolph Institute has to say and what its organizers 
promise to do are important. 
-- Alice Furumoto-Dawson )

*Expand the Health Care Reform Debate to Include Race Based Health 
Disparities
Urges the Nation's Oldest Organization Representing Black Workers**
*

Monday August 6, 3:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) 
announced today it would launch a nationwide movement to eliminate race 
based health disparities as part of the efforts to overhaul the 
country's broken health care system.

"Now, more than at any time in recent memory, universal access to 
quality health care is gaining traction among candidates for national 
offices," said Clayola Brown, President of the A. Philip Randolph 
Institute. "While access is important to improving care it won't solve 
the problems confronting black people when they finally see a doctor. 
It's time to expand the national conversation to include eliminating 
health disparities so blacks can live as long and as rich a life as whites."

Racial disparities in health constitute a national crisis:

    * Blacks live five fewer years than whites
    * Diabetes among blacks is 70% higher than among whites
    * Infant mortality rates are twice as high for blacks as for whites
    * The 5-year survival rate for cancer among blacks diagnosed with
      the disease is 44%, compare with 59% for whites
    * Black people account for 12% of the U.S. Population - and make up
      half of all the country's AIDS cases.

APRI will mobilize its own chapters as well as leaders from the health, 
business, labor and political worlds to expand the current debate around 
reform.

APRI has pledged to recruit partners from the faith community and 
grassroots organizations, seek support from lawmakers, and launch 
innovative public education campaigns with black celebrities to become 
the catalyst for changing the health and health care dynamics in America.

A new health care system must refuse to accept different outcomes for 
blacks as compared to whites.

The A. Philip Randolph Institute is the oldest AFL-CIO Constituency 
Group. It has 141 chapters in 32 States. August 1-5 in Oakland 
California, APRI held an educational conference focusing on health and 
health disparities. It attracted more than 800 participants, mostly 
black workers and union members.

/Contact:/  A. Philip Randolph Institute
Clayola Brown 917-207-2587

-- 
Alice Furumoto-Dawson, Ph.D.
Sr. Research Associate
Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research
Institute for Mind & Biology
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL - USA

Email:  [log in to unmask]
http://cihdr.uchicago.edu/


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