Medical apartheid' - Religious, community leaders accuse Healthcare giant of discrimination

The Windy City has a long history of housing and lending discrimination alongside unspoken geographic boundaries carved out along racial lines, but community activists and a research group have accused a major non-profit medical institution of discrimination based on its sparse investment into urban facilities that primarily treat Black and Latino patients. According to "Separate and Unequal: Racial Redlining in Investment at Advocate Hospitals," Chicago's largest healthcare corporation invested almost 800 percent more, $232 million compared to $26 million, in significant capital improvements at its four hospitals serving predominately White patients than on its four hospitals serving Blacks and Latinos. "First, our people confronted redlining in real estate. Then, we had to take on discriminatory lending in banking. Now, we are face-to-face with an apartheid-like system of healthcare delivery," said Rev. Clarence Ray Kelley, pastor of Pathway Missionary Baptist Church on the west side, and a leader of the Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations. Rev. Kelley stood with Rev. Dr. Marshall Hatch of New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. C.J. Wright of Christ Lutheran Church, other religious and community leaders, a congressman and Advocate employees Dec. 1 outside Advocate Bethany Hospital to release the report. [more]