To wrap up National Minority Health Month, NCLR is proudly hosting a blog carnival with our friends and partners to celebrate recent progress toward eliminating health disparities for underserved communities—and talk frankly about the challenges that remain. From Wednesday, April 25 through Friday, April 27, each day the NCLR blog will feature posts written by our staff and other health, consumer, civil rights, and provider advocates committed to promoting health equity.
Welcome back to the second day of the Health Equity Can’t Wait! blog carnival. In the spirit of National Minority Health Month—a nationwide campaign form our friends in the Office of Minority Health—members and friends of the Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) Community Working Group are taking to the blogosphere to talk about the opportunities and challenges we face in realizing a country where everyone has an equal opportunity to be healthy and thrive.
We’re tackling a different theme each day—check out what our earlier bloggers had to say. Yesterday, guests wrote about the ways that their organizations and communities are taking action to advance health equity. Today’s posts consider health equity from a civil rights framework.
In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” Despite the many advances in our health care system since that time, including the implementation of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, as well as the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, wide disparities in the quality, availability, affordability, and accessibility of private and public health services continue to plague our health care system. As long-standing disparities persist, a civil and human rights–centered discussion of health care is necessary to understanding the challenges and opportunities for advancement.
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Read how our participants tackle the question: From your perspective, is health care a civil and/or human right?
Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care is a Human Right by Aurelia Aceves, National Urban Fellow, Community Catalyst
Health Care is a Human Right for All by Alexis Guild, Migrant Health Policy Analyst, Farmworker Justice
Health Care is Always a Human Right by Christine Soyong Harley, Policy and Programs Director, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
Secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity by Sergio Eduardo Muñoz, Senior Policy Analyst, Health Policy Project, National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Redefining Health: Community Prevention As a Human Right by Ben Simons, Program Coordinator, Prevention Institute
Health As a Fundamental Human Right by Anjela Jenkins, Policy Analyst & Law Students for Reproductive Justice Legal Fellow, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
Health Equity Can’t Wait: Why? Because Health Care is a Basic Human Right! by Lacy Langbecker, MSW, Field Student/Intern, Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health
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Earlier posts:
What is your organization or community doing to advance a health equity mission?
Working Toward Health Equity Together by Quynh Chi Nguyen, Program and Policy Associate, and Aurelia Aceves, National Urban Fellow, Community Catalyst
Promoting the Health Care Law Today because Health Equity Can’t Wait by Sinsi Hernández-Cancio, Director of Health Equity, Families USA
Farmworker Justice: Advancing Health Equity through Education and Advocacy by Alexis Guild, Migrant Health Policy Analyst, Farmworker Justice
Maryland Has Said—Now is the Time for Health Equity! by Leni Preston, Chair, Maryland Women’s Coalition for Health Care Reform
United We Stand: Achieving Health Equity for All by Kellan Baker, MPH, MA, Health Policy Analyst, LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress; Patrick Paschall, Esq., Policy Advocate, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; and Harper Jean Tobin, Esq., Policy Counsel, National Center for Transgender Equality
Health Equity is a Matter of Reproductive Justice by Natalie D. Camastra, Reproductive Justice Public Policy Fellow, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice: Eliminating Health Disparities by Jeffrey Levi, Ph.D., Executive Director, Trust for America's Health
African American Elder Health Disparities by Delane Sims Founder/Chair, Senior Moments
Our Communities Count: Advancing Health Equity by Improving Data by Rebecca Spence, Reproductive Justice Fellow, Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Health Equity Can’t Wait: Supporting A Health Equity Agenda In Wisconsin by Lacy Langbecker, MSW, Field Student/Intern, Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health
P.S. Save the date! On Friday, April 27 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. EDT, help us cap off National Minority Health Month by joining our Twitter chat! Follow the hashtag #HealthEquityNow to be part of the conversation. We’ll be re-tweeting and sharing your thoughts! New to Twitter? Create an account or check out some frequently asked questions to get started.
