WASHINGTON – Doctors urged Congress Thursday to pass legislation to address the disproportionately high maternal mortality rate across the country and remove barriers that prevent people of color from pursuing careers in the medical field.
During a hearing before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical experts discussed health disparities for communities of color, including higher maternal mortality rates.
“Research consistently shows that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds have better outcomes when they are treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic background,” said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an ob-gyn in Texas. “In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.”
“Yet black physicians remain severely underrepresented,” Lawson added.
Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee and a physician himself, noted: “African-American physicians make up only 8% of all physicians, even though they make up 13.6% of the population.”
Cassidy said reducing maternal mortality was one of his top priorities during his time in Congress, adding, “It’s important to recognize that this problem disproportionately affects African Americans.”
Democratic Senator from California Laphonza Butler stated that “the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries.”
“In recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes,” Butler said. “And while the birth rate in this country has declined by about 20% over the last decade, the maternal mortality rate has steadily increased.”
She urged the Committee to consider the so-called Momnibus Act on Black Maternal Healtha bill introduced last year by Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Democratic Representative Lauren Underwood of Illinois and Democratic Representative Alma Adams of North Carolina. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.
“This legislation is not just about the life and death of black women – its passage will improve birth outcomes for all women,” Butler said.
HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated that the panel would consider the bill in the coming months.
Sanders also said Congress should consider increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), increasing class sizes at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to boost the proportion of Black people in the health care profession, and eliminating medical school tuition to reduce the mountain of student loans that can create barriers to more people of color becoming doctors.
Thursday’s hearing coincided with the release of modern maternal mortality figures by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Datawhich shows that 817 women died in 2022 – a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the previous year, but roughly on par with the 861 deaths in 2020.
The maternal mortality rate for black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women, and 13.2 for Asian women.
Funding for HBCU medical schools
Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color are “sacrificing their physical, mental, emotional and financial well-being to bring about the change in the medical field that we so desperately want.”
“That is why we are now passionately advocating for the reintroduction of legislation that would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools,” he said.
Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is “the biggest obstacle to recruiting black and brown doctors to our workforce.” He currently has nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.
Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators that there are “serious challenges” that need to be addressed regarding black and brown students’ access to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.
“There is a wealth of data showing that black patients have better health outcomes when they are treated by black physicians. And that is true across all cultures,” Stone said. “Because when there is cultural connectivity, communication is better, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over decades.”
Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, about 25.8% of whom are black. “Yet only 7% of the medical profession is black.”
Stone told the committee there is a great need to replace retiring physicians. And he said several changes, such as providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help fill the resulting gap.
“Right now, we’ve been retiring about 71,000 doctors a year for several years. We’ve only been graduating 21,000 medical students a year,” Stone said. “And if you follow the numbers, you can see where we’re going to end up. We’re going to need some very creative ideas to get out of this situation.”
