Health equity is the fair and just opportunity for every individual to achieve their full potential in all aspects of health and well-being. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and last summer’s demonstrations over social injustice helped to shed critical light on health inequities. Our recent paper on health equity describes the impact systemic racism has on health and actions that leaders can take. Racism is pervasive throughout industries and institutions, including health care. But health care itself is only one factor that affects a person’s health. Some studies estimate that social, economic, and environmental “drivers of health” (also known as social determinants of health) such as income, location of residence, and the quality of social-support networks can account for 80% of health outcomes.
Health care organizations are on the front-lines of addressing health equity. They play key roles in delivering care, offering products to access care, as employers, and as social safety nets in their communities. Leaders from health systems and health plans are searching for ways to address health equity within their organizations and the communities they serve. They are seeking to understand how they can confront systemic racism and bias and improve health equity.
The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions wanted to understand what health care organizations are doing to address health equity. What steps have they already taken, what have they learned, and what are they planning to do next? We surveyed 20 CEOs and interviewed 28 additional executives from health systems, health plans, and the pharmaceutical sector. (author introduction)