Congressman and Pastors Denounce Advocate’s Racial Redlining of Health Care

DECEMBER 1, 2004—"The question of the day is 'Does Advocate Health Care value white lives more highly than Black lives?" asked the Rev. Dr. Marshall Hatch of New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church at a press conference held this morning outside Advocate Bethany Hospital on Chicago's economically depressed west side.

Hatch joined U.S. Representative Danny Davis, Rev. Dr. Clarence Ray Kelley of the Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations, Father Michael Pfleger of Saint Sabina's Catholic Church and other religious leaders to release a new report, Separate and Unequal: Racial Redlining in Investment at Advocate Hospitals, exposing discriminatory practices of Chicago's largest health care corporation, Advocate Health Care.

The report, prepared by the Hospital Accountability Project, showed that Advocate:
• Invested almost 800% more - $232 million compared to $26 million - on significant capital improvements at its four hospitals serving predominately white patients than on its four hospitals serving Blacks and Latinos.
• Spent $14,044 per licensed bed at predominately white hospitals compared to spending $3,184 at its hospitals serving minorities.
• Proposed spending an astounding 1241% more this year - $276 million compared to $20.6 million - in predominantly white and affluent communities than on hospitals serving minorities.
"Unfortunately, 50 years after Brown v. Board and the March on Washington, we still have to fight racism and racial disparities with Advocate Health Care," said Father Pfleger. Pastor Kelley, who received his chaplaincy training at Bethany, also noted, "Apartheid in health care is unacceptable to us as a people of faith, and an offense to God."

The report also showed that Bethany Hospital fared the worst under Advocate's discriminatory investing practices. Between 1995 and 2003, Advocate invested nothing in Bethany, which serves a patient population that is 97% black, while investing $72 million in Good Shepherd, a similarly-sized hospital in Barrington that serves a patient population that is 96% white.

Congressman Davis, who noted his long-time support for Bethany Hospital, stated "I am not an enemy of Bethany, but I am indeed a friend of the people. I do believe in equity, fair and equal treatment, and that's why I'm here to support the community."

"I am angered and disgusted at the audacity of the Advocate administration who would issue a death sentence on this community by starving Bethany and the people in need of health care resources, said Rev. C.J. Wright of Christ English Lutheran Church.
 

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