As mayor-elect Vince Gray begins to grapple with the economic disparity between the District’s black and white residents, he’ll also have to take a close look at it differences in health care as he promotes his “One City” message.
A report has found that the city’s black residents live 12 fewer years on average than the District’s white residents. It was detailed in a Washington Post story discussing the disparity among races across the region when it comes to well-being.
On the campaign trail, Gray focused a great deal of attention on closing the job gap between the city’s black and white residents as a way of closing the economic split that has divided the city.
The mayor-elect has talked, to a lesser extent, about a similar divide over health care. He has said that keeping the doors open to the only hospital east of the Anacostia River was only a small part of creating a health care system that cares for the city’s poorer residents, the majority of whom are black.
This latest report might mean he’ll have to pay closer attention to the health care. It indicates it’s truly an issue of life and death.
