FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 2, 2025

Contact: Jack Cardinal, jcardinal@communitycatalyst.org

“This regressive administrative step does nothing but result in poorer health outcomes and increased spending for providers, health systems, states, payers, employers and families.”

BOSTON, MA — Recently, news broke that as a result of “restructuring” led by the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Office of Minority Health (OMH) under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would be shuttered. For nearly 40 years, OMH and its sister offices housed within several HHS branches, have been charged with addressing disparities within marginalized communities and/or rural populations through disease prevention, health promotion, risk reduction, healthier lifestyle choices, use of health care services, and barriers to health care. Like the rollback on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, this move will lead to poorer health outcomes, bad policy and increased costs.

Statement from Dr. Brandon G. Wilson, Co-Interim President and CEO at Community Catalyst on the closing of OMH offices: 

“The dismantling of OMH is waste, fraud, and abuse. This regressive administrative step does nothing but result in poorer health outcomes and increased spending for providers, health systems, states, payers, employers and families.

“For decades, this office has played a central role in confronting health disparities that disproportionately affect Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other historically marginalized communities. From funding community-based initiatives to shaping policy and research, the work of the OMH has been critical in pushing our health systems to see and address structural inequities.

“For example, mental health interventions supported by OMH have led to better overall health outcomes, reducing the economic burden on the health care system. Removing these supports could result in a spike in untreated chronic and mental health conditions, ultimately increasing health care expenditures, particularly in rural areas.
 
“Dismantling this office isn’t just administrative—it sends a message. One that risks unraveling years of advocacy, research, and culturally competent care models that have started to make a dent in centuries-old disparities that W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about in the 1890s.
 
“The public health community cannot afford to be silent. We must continue to advocate, organize, and hold institutions accountable for the health of all communities.”

Background: 

The Office of Minority Health (OMH) was created under President Reagan following the 1985 Secretary’s Task Force Report on Black and Minority Health, or Heckler Report, which marked the first time the U.S. government comprehensively studied the health status of racial and ethnic minorities and was reauthorized in the Affordable Care Act.

On its now removed website, OMH was charged with improving health outcomes and reducing disparities within the health care system through various means, including:

  • Promoting the collection of health data by racial, ethnic, and primary language categories and strengthening infrastructures for data collection, reporting, and sharing;
  • Working to increase awareness of the major health problems of racial and ethnic minorities and factors that influence health;
  • Establishing and strengthening networks, coalitions, and partnerships to identify and solve health problems;
  • Developing and promoting policies, programs, and practices to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity;
  • Fostering research, demonstrations, scientific investigations, and evaluations aimed at improving health;
  • Funding demonstration programs that can inform health policy and the effectiveness of strategies for improving health.
About Community Catalyst:  

Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, and a society where health is a right for all. We’re an experienced, trusted partner to organizations across the country, a change agent to policymakers at the local, state, and national level, and both an adversary and a collaborator to health systems in our efforts to advance health justice. We partner with local, state and national organizations and leaders to leverage and build power so that people are at the center of important decisions about health and health care, whether they are made by health care executives, in state houses, or on Capitol Hill. Together with partners, we’re building a powerful, united movement with a shared vision of and strategy for a health system accountable to all people. Learn more at www.communitycatalyst.org.