Eliminating Health Inequalities

Eliminating "waste" in health care.

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS THE MOST RECENT IN A LONG LINE of US presidents to seek reductions in health care spending through elimination of “waste.” However, the stakes this time are unusually high—the president has reported that eliminating waste is needed to fund two-thirds of the approximately $900 billion needed (over 10 years) for expanded health care coverage. To achieve this goal requires defin...

Health Inequalities

Recent policy on inequalities targeting The drive to reduce health inequalities by targeting health improvement action and resources at the most disadvantaged areas, has been a central theme of recent health policy. This has been reflected in the Health Efficiency Access and Treatment (HEAT) Targets which in specific areas, such as smoking cessation , aims to improve the speed of reduction of m...

Health Inequalities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pandemics are associated with significant and destructive national and global impacts on health, economy, society, and security. COVID-19 pandemic has imposed adverse economic consequences on the whole population. This is while the elderly and those with comorbidities, the economically disadvantaged and ethnic minorities were at increased risk of viral infection. Moreover, the mortality rate an...

Health Selection and Health Inequalities

Approaches to Eliminating Sociocultural Disparities in Health

The recent flurry of studies documenting the presence of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in health care and health have outpaced articles that describe effective strategies to eliminate disparities. Through literature review and informal interviews with research, policy, and program experts, we developed a framework of programs that address disparities through targeting clinicians...