Health inequalities exacerbated in U.S. southern states: media

NEW YORK, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Even as more organizations have been calling out racism in public health and medicine, some U.S. states are continuing to exacerbate health inequalities by not providing access to care for many of their most vulnerable residents, particularly those of color, reported the U.S. News & World Report on Wednesday.

"While 40 states have expanded Medicaid, 10 states have not -- and most of those are in the South," said the report. "This refusal to enact Medicaid expansion amounts to a refusal to ease the health care burden of some 3.5 million uninsured adults."

"Racial and social justice demands that these remaining states join the rest of the country in offering help to their most vulnerable citizens," it noted.

People want health insurance, and polling shows 57 percent of U.S. adults believe the federal government should be tasked with providing health care for all Americans, according to the report. Research also shows generally positive outcomes from expanding Medicaid, a program jointly funded by the federal government and states.

"Yet even after a deadly global pandemic with a highly transmissible virus, a national housing crunch with soaring home prices, and rising inflation causing the cost of food to spike, there are still policymakers who refuse to take this needed step," it added.