​The life expectancy at birth for Black Californians is 75.1 years — five years shorter than the state average and the lowest life expectancy of all racial and ethnic groups. Additionally, Black Californians have the highest rates of new prostate, colorectal, and lung cancer cases, and the highest death rates for breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer. These outcomes cannot be explained away by factors like age, income, or education level. The health care system treats people differently — implicit biases and racism are known to exist both at the level of the health care system and at the individual provider level.

The 2021 California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) California Health Policy Survey found about half of Californians think it’s “harder” or “much harder” for Black residents than for white residents to get the care they need. Among those Californians, large majorities agree that the state government, health insurance plans, hospitals, and individual health care providers have a “very large” or “large” amount of responsibility for addressing racial and ethnic health inequality in health care. It is incumbent on California, working at all levels and across systems, to break down entrenched barriers to quality health care.

Generalized approaches to improve health care will neither be robust nor swift enough to control and eliminate disparities, which is why CHCF is investing specifically in Black health equity. Most of CHCF’s work is focused on improving care for Medi-Cal enrollees, but the disparities in care and outcomes that Black Californians face cross insurance types. With that in mind, CHCF will work to end Black health inequities across public and commercial systems. (According to the 2017 California Health Interview Survey [CHIS], 54% of Black Californians have private health insurance and 31% are enrolled in Medi-Cal.)