On July 8, The Michael Bloomberg Foundation donated $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The headline was that this gift would make a Hopkins medical education free for most students. It would also address student costs at the Hopkins Schools of Nursing and Public Health. Although Bloomberg claims his donation to Hopkins will help address the decreasing life expectancy in the U.S., his donation will not solve public health problems in Baltimore, let alone the country.
Michael Bloomberg has received praise from politicians and the media for this gift. More accessible medical school and reduction of student debt is a good thing. But even if the donation leads to more doctors and nurses graduating from the university, this does not help those in Baltimore and around the world who can’t afford the healthcare they need and face increased health risks due to forced wealth inequality. In Roland Park, the wealthiest neighborhood in Baltimore, the life expectancy is 18 years higher than the life expectancy in Downtown/Seton Hill and Greenmount East, the most impoverished Black communities. But everyone deserves to live a healthy life, regardless of where they live.
Billionaires like Bloomberg may say they want to improve public health, but it is the billionaires, banks and corporations, and their politicians who profit from the inequality of our society. We don’t need billionaires to claim to care about the quality of our healthcare. We need a system that is designed to provide everyone with what they need to be healthy.
