Government programs are WIDENING black-white health disparities

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Market-oriented reforms that increase the supply of care -- like relaxing scope-of-practice rules that restrict what nurse practitioners and physician assistants can do without a doctor's supervision -- can also help narrow disparities, especially given that one-quarter of black Americans live in primary-care-shortage areas.
55% : Per the US Department of Health and Human Services, 43% of black people have public health insurance, compared with 35% of white people.
52% : For decades, federal-welfare programs like Medicaid have overpromised and underdelivered.
52% : To do that, we need to reduce dependence on failing government programs like Medicaid -- and grow the economy so more people of all races, creeds and colors can climb the income ladder.
47% : Medicaid pays doctors much less than commercial insurance or even Medicare.
38% : But an underappreciated one is the consistent failure of Medicaid, the public insurance plan for the poor the federal government and the states jointly fund, to improve the health of its beneficiaries.

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