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BOSTON (State House News Service) - Communities of color in Massachusetts experience nearly $6 billion in avoidable annual healthcare spending and lost labor productivity due to poor health and the cost of premature death, according to a new study, which estimates the growing burden will eclipse $11 billion per year by 2050.
Describing the 19-page report as "the first of its kind," researchers commissioned by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and the Health Equity Compact quantified the economic impact wrought by health disparities facing people of color in the Bay State.
Each year, among the state's Asian, Black, and Hispanic or Latino population, premature deaths cost Massachusetts $3 billion, avoidable health care spending tallies $1.5 billion, and another $1.4 billion goes to lost labor productivity across a variety of industries, the report estimated.
"The staggering economic toll of health disparities documented in this report, on top of the tragic human toll, makes clear that now is the time to shift from awareness of the problem to action on solutions," said foundation president Audrey Shelto. "Our Commonwealth led the way in expanding health insurance coverage and improving access, and we have a shared responsibility to act similarly to achieve health equity and eliminate health disparities."
The research team led by Darrell Gaskin and Thomas LaVeist said although poorer health impacts are disproportionately concentrated among people of color -- who suffer higher rates of maternal mortality and morbidity, infant deaths, diabetes and asthma, and other issues -- the economic drag reaches across the state.
Costs of avoidable health care spending are borne by both publicly funded entities such as MassHealth and private, employer-funded health insurance plans, while businesses suffer from lost productivity, the report said.
"Moreover, in addition to the tragic human toll of premature death, the families not built, and milestones not celebrated, Massachusetts also misses out on the contribution those individuals would have made to the Commonwealth's society and economy," authors wrote in an executive summary.
Without action, authors warned that inequity costs will nearly double in a single generation, reaching $11.2 billion annually in today's dollars by 2050.
White residents in Massachusetts also do not enjoy "optimal" health, the report said. Using the same metrics as they did to estimate costs for people of color, authors estimated about $3.6 billion in annual avoidable healthcare spending on white Bay Staters, $1.9 billion in lost labor productivity, and a $12 billion cost per year due to premature deaths.
"Since the Massachusetts population is nearly 70 percent White, it is not surprising that the total costs within the White population were significantly larger than those for other groups across all types of economic burden," the authors wrote. "At the same time, these numbers obscure underlying racial and ethnic health disparities."
The report also broke down the total economic burden on a per capita basis and found sharp differences. The average cost of avoidable healthcare spending per Black resident was estimated at $2,057 per year, compared to $891 per year per white resident. Meanwhile, the average amount of lost labor productivity per Hispanic or Latino resident was $2,112, nearly three times the $740 figure per white resident.
Altogether, the costs for those health burdens among all major races and ethnic groups swell to more than $23 billion per year.
Foundation and compact officials unveiled the report Tuesday during a health disparities summit at UMass Boston. Attorney General Andrea Campbell told attendees that a lack of affordability and access to care are the "first and foremost" factors behind inequitable health outcomes.
"There is no meaningful access to health care -- and certainly no equitable access to health care -- when patients cannot afford to visit their doctor, fill their prescriptions, or call an ambulance if they need one," Campbell said, according to a copy of her prepared remark. "Even for our insured residents, insurmountable deductibles and other forms of patient cost sharing can make a health insurance card unusable -- or lead to crippling medical debt. And these burdens, sadly, fall disproportionately on low-income patients and their families."
Compact co-founder Michael Curry, the CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, also said he hopes that the findings will spur action.
"The Health Equity Compact is using the report's findings to underscore this notion that Massachusetts will 'pay now or pay greater later' and to out the unacceptable cost being paid by communities of color, and inevitably by businesses," Curry said. "Now, our charge is to take this data and act. If not now, then when?"
Elected Democrats who hold power on Beacon Hill have made some specific health disparities like maternal mortality a focus in recent years, but they have not signaled any plans to pursue major reforms in an omnibus package.
Written By Chris Lisinski and Michael Norton/SHNS
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