Half of Black D.C. residents lack easy access to health care, analysis shows

Nearly half of Black D.C. residents live in medically underserved areas — neighborhoods with a shortage of primary care services where the rates of heart disease, hypertension and other serious chronic conditions are more prevalent than in the rest of the city, a Washington Post analysis of federal data shows.

The numbers underscore the troubled state of health outcomes for Black residents in the nation’s capital, who for decades have been disproportionately affected by ailments like heart disease, diabetes, asthma and HIV, despite a flurry of initiatives to stem the tide. That concern is especially acute in the low-income communities concentrated east of the Anacostia River, where outcomes are notably worse than for White, Asian and Latino residents citywide.

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