Health Equity and Social Justice

In 2004 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a landmark report on the state of health literacy in the United States. That report, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion, pulled together a growing body of information indicating that health literacy deficits are both common – present in nearly half of the U.S. population – and damaging to individual health and well-being.

Large numbers of Americans experience higher rates of illness and premature death for reasons that go beyond access to health care, lifestyle choices, and genetics. And yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. spends more than 90 percent of its health budget on downstream, individual medical care.

Few issues cry out for remediation louder than the issue of racial and ethnic disparities in health. The magnitude of these disparities is so great that it has been called the “civil rights issue of the day” – an issue that public health has an obligation to address and remedy.