Health disparities among communities of color cost Massachusetts $5.9 billion a year

Health disparities experienced by communities of color cost Massachusetts about $5.9 billion a year, with a quarter of the economic burden associated with avoidable healthcare spending and another quarter due to lost labor productivity, according to a report released this morning.

Supporters of the new study commissioned by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation say it helps reveal the broader consequences of health inequities and provides motivation for public and private sector leaders to help rectify the disparities. The research also looks to the future of the state’s population, where communities of color are driving growth but are also the ones who are the most heavily impacted by health inequities.

As the next generation rises, the report said, these groups will represent nearly half of the state’s population compared to the less than one-third share they represent today.

“Massachusetts faces a choice to ‘pay now or pay greater later,’ as demonstrated by this report, which highlights the unacceptable cost being paid by communities of color and ultimately borne by businesses and the commonwealth,” the advocacy organization Health Equity Compact said in a statement included with the report.

The authors of the report said it is a “first of its kind” to quantify in economic terms the cost of health inequities for individuals and families, health care providers, employers, public and private sector payers, and the overall Massachusetts economy.

The economic burden associated with health inequities experienced by communities of color in Massachusetts totals nearly $6 billion but could grow to $11.2 billion by 2050 if no action is taken, the report said.

The time to shift from “awareness of the problem to action on solutions” is now after analysis made clear the “staggering economic toll” of health disparities, said Audrey Shelto, president and CEO of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.

“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,” Shelto said in a statement.

Populations of color in the state are disproportionately affected by housing instability, food insecurity, environmental toxins and stressors, and higher rates of poverty as a result of longstanding systemic racism in social and economic structures, policies, and practices, the report said.

That has led to less access to health coverage and care and differences in the quality of care received, researchers wrote in the study.

Differences in delivery of care also stem back to “mistrust in the health care system due to historical and systemic racism and experiences of continued lack of respect and breaches of trust reported by many,” the report said.

Researchers found Black and Hispanic/Latino residents report poorer health and mental health statuses than White residents; pregnancy-associated mortality and severe maternal morbidity are higher for Black residents; and higher rates of diabetes and asthma are reported among Black and Hispanic/Latino residents.

Higher rates of disease and disability in a population require more healthcare services to treat those conditions, which means higher healthcare spending, researchers said.

“By computing the gap between health care spending under the current health status for Massachusetts adults and health care spending if populations of color achieved the health equity target health status, we estimated that avoidable health care spending due to health inequities is $1.5 billion each year, or about 2 percent of total Massachusetts annual health spending,” the report said.

Working-age adults who are less healthy tend to work fewer hours, take more sick days, and be less productive on the job, the report said. The analysis compared the productivity of working-age populations of color with their current health status to the same group if they were fully healthy.

“We estimated that health inequities experienced by populations of color today cost Massachusetts $1.4 billion each year in lost labor productivity across industries,” the report said.

The analysis also compared the current mortality rates by race and ethnicity at each with the “health equity targets” for mortality at each age.

“We found that health inequities are estimated to lead to premature death for Massachusetts residents of all ages,” the report said.