PROSTATE CANCER, INFANT DEATHS HIT BLACKS MOST

Five-year audit of Romneycare

Blacks in the Bay State are suffering from obesity and dying of prostate cancer at a higher rate than any other racial group while also losing access to substance abuse treatment under the much-touted Romneycare plan, a longawaited state auditor’s report shows.

The findings, outlined in an exhaustive, 250-page study to be released today by state Auditor Suzanne Bump, underline what she called a “rather dismaying picture” of the state’s overall public health, particularly along racial lines.

In more than two dozen measures her office studied, African-Americans ranked last among whites, Asians and Latinos in more than half of them, including obesity, infant mortality and prostate cancer mortality. The share of African-Americans accessing substance abuse treatment also shrank 17 percent over a 10year span — a closely watched item amid the state’s unbending opioid crisis.

“I think this lays bare some of these disparities in more concrete terms than we’ve seen before,” Bump told the Herald. “Asthma, dental health, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, obesity — we are not becoming a healthier society even as we access more health care.”

The study stems from a legislative requirement that Bump’s office review how the state’s landmark 2012 health care containment law, known as Chapter 224, is working five years after its passage. The cost of the review could ultimately top $2 million and extend through next June, if additional funding Bump has requested is approved in next year’s tightening $40 billion budget.

But Bump said due to a complex web of data, some of which is still incomplete and a shifting health care landscape, her office has been unable to draw a direct line between the law’s intent and many of the state’s health care cost trends. For example, health care costs are growing, but at a lower pace than nationally.

“While you can’t say that 224 caused that,” Bump said, “I feel very confident saying it didn’t make it any worse.”

Five years of analysis did, however, outline a clearer, if not “surprising” picture, she said: The state is seeing vast racial disparities in how it delivers health care, with African-Americans faring the worst.

Bump’s staff said without more comprehensive data predating 2011, they can’t say whether disparities between African-Americans and other races are growing. But there are red flags. For example: Since 2013, while the number of whites and Asians who reported not seeing a doctor because of cost shrank, that number has spiked for African-Americans and Latinos.

The issue, while crystallized in the data, has long been watched in health and public policy circles. State Rep. Jeff Sanchez (DJamaica Plain), who chairs the House committee on Health Care Financing, is pushing legislation that would create an office of “health equity” under the Office of Health and Human Services to study and address disparities.

Aides to Sanchez said he wasn’t available for an interview yesterday. Officials at the Department of Public Health say they need to review the report, once it’s released in full today.