Report highlights CT’s racial health disparities

By JOE COOPER – JANUARY 2, 2019 – Hartford Business Journal

A new report says major health disparities exist among boys and men of color compared to non-Hispanic white men and boys in Connecticut.

The inaugural 2018 Connecticut Report Card on Health Equity Among Boys and Men of Color by the UConn Health Disparities Institute (HDI) says Hispanic and African-American men in the state were 3.6 times and 1.9 times, respectively, more likely to lack health insurance than white men.

Nationally, almost 50 percent of men ages 18 to 34 were covered by private or public insurance. Of that, about 40 percent of Hispanic/Latino men and 41 percent of American Indians/Alaska Natives were covered by insurance, the report said.

HDI said insured rates and health outcomes are greatly influenced by factors such as income levels, educational attainment, employment, access to transportation, housing, incarceration rates and fatherhood.

HDI hopes that shining a light on Connecticut’s health inequity for policymakers, researchers, and funders could help reduce health disparities among the state’s medically underserved populations, said HDI Director Dr. Wizdom Powell.

According to the report, an average of more than 30 percent of Hispanic men and over 16 percent of African-American men were uninsured in Connecticut from 2011 to 2015, while 9 percent of white men were uninsured.