Black and Native Americans in Florida have some of the worst health care outcomes in the U.S., ranking in the bottom fourth in a new analysis of health data from the Commonwealth Fund.
In its report , released Thursday, the Commonwealth Fund looked at 24 indicators of health care in all fifty states, broken down by racial and ethnic categories.
The results: White Americans outperform Black, Latinx and Native Americans in nearly all states. David Bradley, chief scientist on the report, said policymakers should focus on one metric in particular: mortality amenable to health care.
It measures deaths from things like appendicitis, tonsillitis and diabetes complications before the age of 50 鈥� conditions that could be well-managed with access to health care.
鈥淩ates for, particularly for black individuals, are much, much higher than they are for white individuals 鈥� one and a half times higher, for example,鈥� Bradley said. 鈥淎nd so by bringing those rates down, and seeing that sort of as your as your your end outcome, what you鈥檝e actually done is you鈥檝e improved access to primary care, you鈥檝e improved access to preventive care, you鈥檝e you鈥檝e done a better job of managing chronic illness, overall life course.鈥�
Asian Americans had the best health care outcomes in Florida 鈥� even better than white Floridians. Florida鈥檚 indigenous population of about 40,000 made it one of the few states where outcomes could be measured for Native Americans.
鈥淓verywhere where we could measure the experience for Native Americans, what we saw was, the experiences were significantly worse for Native Americans, both in terms of health care access, healthier outcomes, health care quality then for other population groups,鈥� Bradley said. 鈥淢y guess is, even though we can鈥檛 measure it in every state, those experiences would be mirrored.鈥�
Latinx Floridians are uninsured at more than twice the rate of white Floridians. But Florida鈥檚 rate isn鈥檛 as bad as the 40 percent uninsured rate in Texas.
鈥淭o me, that suggests that there鈥檚 something happening, something right, that鈥檚 happening in terms of outreach to that community,鈥� Bradley said. 鈥淎nd so, if there鈥檚 a seed of something there that might might sort of be suitable for building on.鈥�
Bradley said one of the easiest things Florida lawmakers could do to lower the health care equity gaps would be to expand Medicaid.
鈥淔lorida has some of the highest quality hospitals in the country,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he quality of care that鈥檚 provided on average in Florida doesn鈥檛 matter for the people who can鈥檛 access those services because they don鈥檛 have insurance coverage.鈥�
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