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What is Health Equity

Health Equity is the idea that individuals have the same right to access healthcare regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, or sexual orientation. It is the idea that all people should be treated equally on biological and socioeconomic factors. Health disparities often come from racial discrimination based on systematic social biases and economic disparity.

5 Importances of Health Equity

Health equity is important because it helps improve health outcomes for the population.

1) Health equity makes healthcare more affordable.

Awareness of health inequity can promote advocacy and participation within the healthcare system, improving access to care and lower costs. Stigma, stereotype threat, and self-stigma have been studied for their effects on healthcare access. These negative factors can contribute to people’s decisions about what care they seek or do not seek and consequently impact healthcare outcomes.

2) Health equity improves public health outcomes.

Health equity improves public health by bringing the entire community together for inclusion and identifying populations targeted for improvement, including marginalized communities and individuals with disabilities who may be at greater risk of receiving inadequate care. It also helps reduce health disparities by focusing on populations currently receiving inadequate care.

3) Health equity fosters health progress.

Health equity can empower communities to make the necessary decisions to improve their health and overcome barriers to quality care by affecting policy, agency, and community-level changes positively. Health equity provides a framework for designing healthcare systems and policies based on the needs of all people, including those who do not have access to resources that would allow them access to healthcare.

4) Health equity improves public health policy.

Health equity is important for policymaking because it can show the inequities in disease, health, and illness between populations and help identify policies that can improve health for all people and reduce healthcare costs for all people. Health inequity also plays a role in how the healthcare system manages mental and chronic illnesses and how certain groups of people’s pain is treated compared to others.

5) Health equity promotes inclusion.

Health equity promotes inclusion by ensuring that all people, including the most vulnerable, can access health services and treatment. Health equity creates a safe and welcoming environment that helps to create the appropriate space for diverse communities.

Conclusion

Health inequity affects everyone. By promoting health equity, we can improve the healthcare system and the health of all people. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and given the same access to care regardless of race, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. To create a world where this is true, we must all work towards health equity.