Climate risks to health care infrastructure threaten community health and health care facilities’ financial viability.
Health care providers are on the front lines in responding to extreme weather events. Providers must respond to the increased physical and mental health needs of their communities while also preparing to withstand the disruptions that extreme weather events pose to the operation of their facilities and risk to their staff and patients. This is especially true for lower-resourced providers and those who serve low-income patients and communities of color, as they already bear the disproportionate burden of exposure to climate hazards—and the poor health outcomes that come with it. For instance, more intense extreme heat events increase energy costs and threaten public health and safety, particularly among outdoor workers, individuals without access to air conditioning, and low-income households that may not be able to afford to run air conditioning even when they have it.
Climate risks to health care infrastructure threaten community health and health care facilities’ financial viability. For example, increased electricity demands for cooling during extreme heat events can stress power grids, leading to power outages that jeopardize hospitals’ safe storage of medications and vaccines and the use of medical equipment. Hurricanes and tropical storms, which are increasing in frequency and intensity, can interfere with access to medical supplies well beyond a directly affected area. For example, consider the national shortage of saline that occurred following the damage that Hurricane Maria caused to a Puerto Rico manufacturing plant that supplied 50 percent of U.S. hospitals with saline bags. Flooding and storms may damage community infrastructure such as bridges and roads, closing transportation routes to and from health care facilities. Facilities may also need to evacuate or close in the event of extreme weather, as when in the summer of 2023, Tropical Storm Hilary flooded a California hospital emergency room and Hurricane Idalia forced several Florida hospitals to evacuate and move patients. When some facilities are not fully operational, other health care facilities nearby may become overextended, threatening the quality of patient care.
Following an active 2023 hurricane season, as well as extreme heat and wildfires, policymakers and health care providers must make preparing the health care system for increasing climate emergencies a top and immediate priority. Federal policymakers can better support health care providers in improving their resilience to extreme weather events—especially providers that are underresourced, such as community health centers (CHCs) and rural hospitals. A new Center for American Progress analysis shows that more than 1 in 3 CHC sites are in areas of high relative climate vulnerability. This report highlights opportunities to leverage new funding streams and financing strategies, as well as federal policy recommendations, to address the challenges these critical providers face:
- Ensure longer-term, sustainable funding for CHCs and rural hospitals that is inclusive of investments in health care climate resilience.
- Tailor communications to and build awareness among safety net providers—or providers that primarily serve low-income patients, patients of color, and rural communities—about all existing resources that are available to support climate resilience.
- Center climate justice in federal policy by making sure that funding for health care climate resilience prioritizes the communities and providers that are most vulnerable to climate threats and overburdened by pollution.
- Make health care safety net provider infrastructure a critical component of federal programs that are designed to support community health and climate resilience.
- Ensure that the priorities and budget of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) address the health impacts of climate change.
- Make carbon emission reductions a critical component of all programs aimed at improving the climate resilience of the health care system.
People of color, low-income families, and rural communities are disproportionately affected by climate change and pollution
While the impacts of climate change are felt across all communities, some populations are particularly vulnerable to and burdened by climate hazards. Communities of color and low-income families are among those most at risk of experiencing the detrimental physical and mental health effects of climate change—and have insufficient infrastructure to withstand extreme weather as well as fewer resources to recover. For example, low-income communities, which are disproportionately also communities of color, and rural communities are more prone to flooding and drought. Low-income communities also often lack tree cover and green spaces, which absorb heat and reduce both temperatures within neighborhoods and the incidence of heat-related illnesses. Hispanic people are more likely to work in weather-exposed industries, such as construction or agriculture, and thus to experience climate-related health issues: One-third of worker heat-related fatalities from 2010 to 2021 were among Hispanic workers. Black people and those with low incomes tend to live in communities with lower air quality, putting them at increased risk of premature death as climate change worsens air pollution and increases the incidence of wildfire smoke. In addition to facing climate change threats, communities of color and low-income populations have historically lived in areas where the nation’s worst and most persistent sources of pollution—fossil fuel-burning cars, power plants and industrial facilities, truck hubs, ports, landfills, trash incinerators, and more—have been concentrated. This has had serious consequences for their health.
