Cleaver and Fellow Homeland Security Committee Democrats Call on HHS Inspector General to Investigate Healthcare Disparities Intensified by COVID-19

(Kansas City, MO) – United States Representative Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO), a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, joined Democratic membership of the committee in requesting the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) examine healthcare disparities exposed by the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Lawmakers urged the OIG to probe HHS's efforts to eliminate socioeconomic, racial and ethnic healthcare disparities and provide recommendations to address them moving forward.

"The pandemic has further exposed existing racial and socioeconomic disparities that remain entrenched across all facets of our society: education, criminal justice, employment, transportation, politics, and health. Most urgent are the healthcare disparities that place historically disadvantaged communities at greater risk of adverse outcomes for individuals with COVID-19."– Said Congressman Cleaver.

"It is long overdue for our nation to seriously address these glaring inequities. They are the legacy of generations of institutional exclusion that are now being exacerbated by a global pandemic. We must first provide relief to those communities being devasted by Coronavirus, but also sustain a sense of urgency in addressing these disparities."

You can find the official letter here.

Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri's Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Oak Grove, North Kansas City, Gladstone, Claycomo, and all of Ray, Lafayette, and Saline Counties. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee; Chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy; member of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress; member of the Committee on Homeland Security; and a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus. For more information, please contact Juan Ramiro Sarmiento at 816-842-4545 or Ramiro.Sarmiento@mail.house.gov