Health equity takes center stage
There is a long-running real estate debate that seems to have no end: Should low-income individuals have access to home ownership? Some observers say yes, while others believe low-income citizens should have access to safe and affordable housing—not necessarily home ownership.
The same can be said of health care. Not everyone can have access to a concierge doctor, but they should be able to find high-quality affordable care no matter where they live or their ethnic background. Retail pharmacies can help them do that—or should.
As have been reported, the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on health equity (or the lack of it), as the disparities of the disease’s impact among different demographic and ethnic groups was laid bare for the world to see.
According to health policy organization KFF, total cumulative data indicate that Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander people experienced higher rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to White people when data are adjusted to account for differences in age by race and ethnicity. The numbers have led to an increased focus on the differences in access to healthcare among various communities.
Our cover story this month takes a look at what companies are doing to make health care accessibility a bigger part of their remit. It’s clear that the issue is a concern or a priority for a lot of companies and brands, and their strategies are diverse. CVS Health, for example, is taking a company-wide approach that includes free biometric screenings and investments in local, high-risk communities, while Mckesson pharmacy is putting its efforts in reducing pharmacy deserts.
And it’s not just national brands. Community and small pharmacies are also focussing on providing health care access to a larger swath of the population. Which is a good thing, because the issue is so big that it will require cooperation and collaboration.
“Traditional health care organizations generally struggle to address health inequities and no single sector can do this work alone,” Deloitte wrote in a 2023 report on health equity. “It will take an ecosystem of organizations to impact health through innovation and collaboration. The statistics on care management reveal that in 2019 only 4% of individuals who could benefit from chronic care management received those services.”
Pharmacies can reverse these numbers.
