Narrowing the Black-White Health Gap

Introduction

Race unjustly affects our health from the moment we are born until we die. Health disparities are numerous: the data show that Black people throughout the United States experience higher rates of illness and death across a wide range of health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and obesity when compared to their White counterparts. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 70 and 80 percent of all premature deaths are preventable and are attributable to inadequate clinical care and social, environmental, and behavioral circumstances.

The CDC defines health equity as the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of economic, social, and other obstacles to health and health care. Achieving health equity in the U.S. will require an understanding of both the historic and contemporary determinants of health inequities.

This report provides an overview of the root causes of the Black-White health disparities in the U.S. and offers guidance to the private sector on investment strategies that will have a measurable impact on the Black-White health gap. Our intended audiences are impact investors, community development organizations, corporations, financial institutions, and others seeking to understand how to identify key features of a project or strategy that has the potential to effectively address the Black-White health gap.

Narrowing the Black-White health gap will require investments that address its root causes. The varying causes of the health gap offer numerous investment opportunities and areas for the private sector to consider, such as partnering with the public sector to address the social determinants of health (i.e., housing, education, wealth, and employment opportunities) that have disproportionately impacted the health of Black Americans, investing in innovative solutions that mitigate the racial biases in clinical care, and investing in the expansion and construction of accessible and affordable health care clinics in Black communities.

Data indicates that traditional means of addressing the Black-White health gap have failed and require a rethinking of how we pursue health equity. This new way of thinking can be spearheaded by the private sector. We encourage impact investors to invest in solutions where evidence exists of their effectiveness in reducing the Black-White health gap and where additional capital flows will help the solutions and strategies scale.

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