A new study found that racial and educational health disparities in the United States cost the country billions of dollars each year. The study found that the total cost of racial health disparities was $451 billion in 2018, while the total cost of educational health disparities was $978 billion. The study’s findings highlight the significant financial costs of racial and educational health disparities, and the authors call for action to address these disparities.
A new study published in JAMA has found that racial and educational health disparities cost the United States billions of dollars each year. The study, which was led by Thomas LaVeist, Ph.D., dean of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, found that the total cost of racial health disparities was $451 billion in 2018, while the total cost of educational health disparities was $978 billion.
The study used data from four databases to estimate the cost of unequal health outcomes. The researchers found that the costs of racial health disparities were primarily due to the excess premature deaths experienced by certain racial and ethnic groups. Overall, excess premature deaths affecting different racial groups differently amounted to $293 billion, or 65 percent of the total cost of racial health disparities.
Another $81 billion came from lost labor market productivity, and $77 billion came from excess medical costs.
The researchers also found that certain demographics bore the brunt of racial health disparities more than others. Black people, for example, carried 69 percent of the costs of racial health disparities, while Latino people carried 21 percent. American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations bore 6 percent of the cost burden, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders carried 3 percent, and Asian people held 2 percent.
The researchers also documented an extremely high-cost burden for health disparities born from inequities in educational attainment. The overall cost of education-based health disparities was $978 billion, which is 5 percent of the GDP. That breaks down to a $2,988 per-person cost burden.
Those with a high school certificate or GED (61 percent) and those with less than a high school diploma (less than 10 percent) bear the majority of that financial load (26 percent). The researchers noted that, while only accounting for 9% of the US population, people without a high school diploma bear a disproportionate share of the economic costs associated with education-based health disparities.
People with some college education carried $128 billion of the cost burden.
The researchers also noted that these high-cost burdens, like race-based health inequalities, were largely caused by the cost of excess premature deaths; $649 billion of the economic burden of education-based health disparities was caused by excess premature deaths. In addition, $155 billion in additional medical care expenses and $174 billion in lost labor market productivity were related.
The per-person cost burden was more equal across states when looking at education-based health disparities. There was a similar number of states falling into the highest and lowest tiers of economic burden; nine states saw per-person costs between $4,401 and $8,500, while eight saw per-person costs up to $2,100.
The study’s findings highlight the significant financial costs of racial and educational health disparities. These disparities not only harm the health of individuals and communities, but they also cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year.
The study’s authors call for action to address these disparities, including policies that promote health equity and improve access to quality healthcare for all Americans.
