Creating Health Equity
Author: Angela Xiong
Edited by: Obehi Oniha
Published by: Christie Cao (4/14/2021)
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 27.5 million people did not have any access to health insurance at any point during the year, revealing the alarming presence of health inequities in our country. Health equity is defined as a standard of health achieved when every person has the opportunity to attain their full health potential and no person is disadvantaged from attaining it based on social status or circumstances. Conversely, health disparities are a particular type of health difference that occurs when a person is faced with either socioeconomic or environmental disadvantages. Health disparities are one of the major forms of health differences that have led to the hindrance of health equity worldwide.
These disparities can lead to diseases being left untreated which can cause consequences like differences in years of life expectancy, decreased quality of life, and death among groups of people who do not have access to healthcare for treating these diseases. Usually health disparities disproportionately affect groups of people who are more susceptible to health inequities like those who are economically disadvantaged, racial minorities, the unemployed, uninsured and under-insured, LGBTQ, and people with severe mental and behavioral health disorders. In order to prevent these health inequities, local communities must identify and address social determinants of health and work before they can improve these conditions through legislative and environmental changes.
On a more global scale, health systems like the CDC, WHO, NIH are helping to eliminate these inequalities at the international and national level. The CDC supports eliminating socioeconomic and racial health disparities as an integral part of its chronic disease prevention and health promotion efforts. The WHO is focusing the health sector on reducing equity through global collaboration. The NIH oversees numerous programs that work toward improved health for all and these include research, information dissemination, and fostering collaborations among health equity disciplines. Researchers are also making efforts to propose projects that evaluate solutions to health differences that are driven largely by social, economic, and environmental factors. By taking action to combat global health issues like health inequality, these organizations and researchers are helping to make healthcare a more universal right.
We must first bridge the gaps between health disparities that prevent everyone from receiving an affordable and accessible healthcare in order to solve many of the health issues in our modern world.