Could This Healthcare Claim By Beto Possibly Be True?

A couple of weeks ago, Beto O'Rourke (Democratic candidate for presidential nomination) made a rather shocking claim. He said the infant mortality rate between Whites and Blacks in the U.S. us currently worse than it was in 1850.

Could that possibly be true? Would the giant leaps in health care made since 1850 have narrowed that gap? Sadly, No. O'Rourke's statement is TRUE! While the infant mortality has significantly improved for everyone since 1850, the rate between Whites and Blacks has gotten worse.

The good folks at PolitiFact decided to check on Beto's statement. Here is what they said:

O’Rourke’s statement is deeply grounded. Academic studies lead to estimates that in 1850, live-born black babies were 1.6 times more likely to die in their first year than white ones. The latest racial infant mortality statistics are from 2016 - not 2019 as O’Rourke suggests. They show blacks were 2.3 times more likely to die in infancy than whites.

This is inexcusable. And it has a cause -- institutional racism. Racism continues to be too big a factor in our institutional systems -- not only our educational, justice, and political systems, but evidently, also our medical care system.

This could be fixed. We could have true equality for everyone in this country. But too many Whites cling to their privilege. Ignorantly, they seem to believe that granting equal rights to everyone will somehow take rights away from them. They are wrong, and their illogical beliefs make the country worse for everyone.