Source: United States Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN) announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will provide more than $2M in grants to a Minneapolis Department of Health partnership program to enhance equitable community responses to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m grateful to the Minneapolis Health Department for their commitment to eliminating racial health gaps in our state, and this federal funding will help with their effort,” said Sen. Klobuchar. “As we round the corner of the pandemic, I will continue working to ensure all Minnesotans have access to quality health care resources.”
“We know that COVID-19 has not been the great equalizer. It has laid bare many inequities, including health disparities that hurt hardest low-income communities and Black, Brown and Indigenous people. This is the result of decades of structural oppression that we all must commit to rooting out of society,” said Sen. Smith. “For example, these Minnesotans are more likely to serve in front line jobs that are deemed as essential, but essentially put their health at greater risk, too. This grant will help improve health outcomes in the metro area and I’ll keep pushing for measures to reduce health disparities as we emerge from the pandemic.”
Klobuchar is a cosponsor of the COVID-19 Health Disparities Action Act, legislation to address the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on communities of color. The bill would require targeted testing, contract tracing, public awareness campaigns and outreach efforts specifically directed at racial and ethnic minority communities and other populations that are vulnerable to the coronavirus.
In 2021, the White House heeded Smith’s call to create a COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force after she helped introduce the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act of 2020. Mary Turner of Plymouth, Minnesota—and President of the Minnesota Nurses Association—was named to the White House’s task force. This year Sen. Smith also introduced legislation to study and address how social, environmental, and economic conditions exacerbate health inequities in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and people of color. These conditions, known as social determinants of health, are the result of institutional racism embedded in our society including in housing, employment, education, health care, and more.
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