May isn’t just Mental Health Awareness Month — it’s also Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.
As we honor and celebrate the diversity, culture, and contributions of the AAPI community, we also recognize the challenges and disparities that AAPI individuals face within our broken health care system.
According to KPP, “Asian people are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the United States, almost doubling from 10.5 million to almost 20 million between 2000 and 2020,” with an additional 700,000 people identifying as Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI).1
When it comes to rates of health insurance, non-elderly NHOPI people were 4% more likely to be uninsured than their white counterparts in 2019.2 However, disaggregating the data to different racial and ethnic subgroups shows wide variations in insurance rates and other health disparities.3 For example, Mongolian people in the United States have an astounding 28% uninsurance rate.
Like other communities of color, AAPI people also face disparities in health outcomes when compared to the non-Hispanic white population. For example, the AAPI community tends to see high rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hepatitis B, mental illness, osteoporosis, and tobacco use.4
Unfortunately, when it comes to mental health, AAPI people are less likely to utilize mental health services compared to other racial and ethnic groups. In 2021, only 25% of Asian adults with mental illness received mental health services, compared to 52% of white adults — a staggering difference and especially concerning given the spike in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes in recent years.5
Not only did AAPI people face a spike in discrimination during the Covid-19 pandemic, some also faced more exposure and higher rates of illness. Indigenous Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County saw infection rates of up to five times of white people.6
If we’re going to address these disparities, we need to start by fixing our broken, profit-driven health care system. We can do this by passing a single-payer health care system through Medicare for All, which would include hospital services, primary and preventative services, mental health care, prescription drugs and medical devices, and so much more at no cost to patients at the point of service.
Medicare for All would level the playing field by eliminating financial barriers to care while providing additional funding, protections, and support for medically underserved areas and communities.
Together, let’s keep up our collective fight for health care justice and guaranteed health care for ALL.
In solidarity,
Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All
Sources:
1. “Health Care Disparities Among Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) People,” Drishti Pillai, Nambi Ndugga, and Samantha Artiga, KFF, May 2023.
https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/health-care-disparities-among-asian-native-hawaiian-and-other-pacific-islander-nhopi-people/
2. Ibid.
3. “Invisible in the data: Broad ‘Asian American’ category obscures health disparities,” Usha Lee McFarling, Stat News, November 2023.
https://www.statnews.com/2023/11/21/asian-american-health-disparities-obscured/
4. “Health Disparities,” Asian American Health Initiative.
https://aahiinfo.org/health-disparities/
5. “Health Care Disparities Among Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) People,” Drishti Pillai, Nambi Ndugga, and Samantha Artiga, KFF, May 2023.
https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/health-care-disparities-among-asian-native-hawaiian-and-other-pacific-islander-nhopi-people/
6. “Medicare for All and Racial Justice,” National Nurses United.
https://medicare4all.org/flyers-2/
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