[1]National Nurses United



February is Black History Month, a time to reflect on and honor the
history, contributions, and culture of the Black community.

For centuries, countless Black leaders have made game-changing
contributions to public health and medicine, including notable nurses such
as Harriet Tubman and Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first Black woman to earn a
professional nursing license in the United States.

As we celebrate these trailblazers, we must also recognize the ongoing
racism and disparities Black communities still face, and we must keep
working to resolve them.

Health and health care aren’t one-size-fits-all, and all too often — both
now and throughout history — Black patients in the United States
experience disparities in their care and health outcomes compared to white
patients.

According to KFF, Black patients face greater barriers to care, including:

* A higher rate of being uninsured and lacking health coverage.
* Being more likely to go without care due to costs, and less likely to
receive mental health care.
* More instances of unfair treatment or negative experiences with health
care providers.

As a result, Black people statistically experience worse health outcomes
than their white counterparts, including lower life expectancy, higher
maternal and infant mortality rates, and higher rates of chronic diseases
such as diabetes, asthma, and HIV and AIDS.

Unfortunately, experts say we can only expect these disparities to worsen
with the nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and other
federal health care programs that Congressional Republicans and President
Trump passed last year to pay for billionaire tax cuts.

[ [link removed] ]Politico: Looming Medicaid cuts could hurt Black children, advocates
warn. Nearly 2 in 3 Black children are enrolled in the program.

[ [link removed] ]The Hill: Medicaid cuts risk worsening Black maternal health crisis

[ [link removed] ]Capital B: Medicaid Cuts Could Leave Millions of Black People Without
Care. Without Medicaid, Arita Walker’s daily inhaler would cost $800 a
month. Proposed changes to the program could shift access to care for
Black communities.

To achieve true health care justice, we need Medicare for All: a
single-payer, national health care system in the U.S. that guarantees care
for all free at the point of service, regardless of race, ethnicity,
country of origin, immigration status, sex, gender, marital status, age,
or income.

Expanded and improved Medicare for All means everybody in, nobody out.
This legislation would go a long way in addressing health disparities,
effectively controlling costs, and ensuring that everyone is guaranteed an
excellent standard of care across the entire country.

Today, Medicare for All has more momentum than ever before, but we need to
keep building the public support and political will necessary to pass it
into law.

[ [link removed] ]Now is the time to get involved: if you haven’t already, sign up to
receive our 2026 Medicare for All Toolkit with all the ways you can make
an impact in our movement for health care justice.

[ [link removed] ]Sign Up »

In solidarity,

National Nurses United



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