How does health and social safety net protection vary by race?
Published April 11, 2023 - Last update: August 28, 2023
Social safety net policies protect basic income, health, food, and housing for millions of low-income people in the United States. This includes programs that reduce poverty, mitigate the negative effects of economic shocks, ensure health care coverage, protect access to nutrition, and provide stable housing. Examples of these programs include Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Section 8 housing vouchers, and public housing projects. An estimated 30% of people in the U.S. participated in social safety net programs in 2019.
Safety net programs improve public health by optimizing the conditions under which we live, work, and play. They promote access to quality food, healthcare, housing, education, and economic stability—factors that keep individuals free of disease.
But the social safety net falls short of protecting the health and wellness of everyone, particularly Black, Latino/a, and Indigenous communities. Despite gains in household income over the past several decades, the racial income gap is wide and persistent. Black and Latino/a populations also consistently face higher rates of food insecurity and are more likely to live within food swamps , which are urban environments with few grocery stores but many non-nutritious food options. Black and Latino/a people also experience more barriers to medical care than White people because they are less likely to have insurance, more likely to access care through non-optimal settings like emergency rooms , and more likely to face racial discrimination from providers.
The fragility of the social safety net was never more clear than during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Black, Latino/a, and Indigenous people felt its harshest impacts. Several factors related to job security, income, and housing contributed to disproportionate rates of death and illness among Black and Latino/a people during the pandemic. For example, on average, Black and Latino/a people were less able to work from home and lived in more crowded households , increasing their chances of contracting COVID-19. Moreover, lack of accessible healthcare and health insurance worsened the chances of dying from COVID-19. Experiencing illness further strains people’s ability to work and causes them to lose wages , exacerbating economic instability and unavailability of health insurance. Black people also reported higher financial strain associated with food access, and Latino/a people reported higher rates of fear about traveling safely to grocery stores.
“
What is our freedom if we don't take care of each other?”
Erica Woodland
With this in mind, our Racial Data Tracker provides visualizations of key racial differences in various social and economic predictors of health that are protected by safety net programs. We use trusted sources of national and state data such as the American Community Survey and General Social Survey to show trends in food access, insurance coverage, housing quality, and economic stability. These data communicate the importance of dismantling structural racism via antiracist policies that promote broad access to quality income, health, food, and housing.
Main take-aways:
The social safety net falls short in protecting the health and wellness of Black and Latino/a communities as effectively as it does for White people.
As a recent example, the inadequate social safety net contributed to greater impact of COVID-19 on Black, Latino/a, and Indigenous populations in the U.S.
Key racial differences exist in various social and economic predictors of health protected by safety net programs. Strengthening the social safety net will help close these gaps and, in turn, prevent disease.
A note about measurement: While entities that collect and report racial and ethnic demographic data vary considerably in their methodologies, they most often utilize the racial and ethnic categories set by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). These “OMB categories” were last updated in 1995 and are currently under review . The BU Center for Antiracist Research has proposed changes to these categories, and will implement new standards as they are developed. In the meantime, the Center’s Racial Data Lab (RDL) ensures data visualizations and discussion mostly align with OMB categories. Note that there may be slight variation between abbreviations used in visualizations and narrative components.