Our Views: Bill Cassidy’s words matter, but so do his actions

Republican U.S. Sen Bill Cassidy has been taking a lot of flak lately for his comments about Louisiana’s high rate of maternal mortality, and it’s easy to understand why.

“About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear,” Cassidy told Politico, as part of a series on public health. “Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”

On their face, those are hurtful words; Cassidy, a physician who worked in Louisiana’s old Charity Hospital system before he went into politics, seemed to wave away concerns over health care disparities, suggesting that if you just factor out Black women there’s not much of problem, and throw his hands up at the reasons for their higher maternal mortality rates.

The irony here is that Cassidy clearly does understand the issues he was discussing. More importantly, he’s got a record of actively working across the usual partisan lines to address them.

Cassidy co-sponsored the Maternal Health Quality Improvement Act that passed as part of an omnibus spending plan, which supports training to prevent implicit bias in treatment. He was also a Senate author of a bill named for the late civil rights icon John Lewis to invest in research into racial health disparities in medicine.

“As a doctor who worked in Louisiana’s charity hospital system, providing quality health care to underserved communities is a priority,” he said of that measure.

And Cassidy is backing another bill to cover remote monitoring of blood pressure, blood glucose and pulse rates for expectant moms.

Those efforts can make a real difference, Cassidy’s critics should remember.

And Cassidy should remember that a politician’s choice of words matters too.

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