THE ACT
Unraveling our many health inequities, and addressing the centuries of racism that sustain them, will require a durable approach. However, today, getting three-year funding commitments is difficult, and anything beyond ten years is like getting blood from a stone. The Federal Health Equity For All Act will institute the infrastructure and mechanisms at the community level to locally create the conditions for durable well-being.
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To reinvent our health infrastructure so it promotes inclusive well-being, community-driven, and localized interventions, and equity as its core metric, we envision a two-pronged approach. The first prong consists of a network of health equity innovation hubs sustained by coalitions of community-based organizations and the second of flexible and non-programmatic funding streams that support social entrepreneurs to thrive and change our system from the ground up. For this, we need:
FIVE COMPONENTS
Long-Term Federal Funding. Enact a federal framework that recognizes health as a human right and creates a durable funding mechanism under community control for health equity anchor institutions. Long-term systemic problems need solutions funded by long-term systemic revenue.
Critical Mass for People Power. Weave a network of health equity innovation hubs with decision-making power to design, test, implement, and disseminate actionable policies and interventions. These hubs will use a participatory-action approach to build upon the strength of existing ideas. They may fund local policy efforts to replenish the basket of supplies required for communities to advance their health priorities, or they may choose to support community-based entrepreneurs advancing immediate solutions to health.
Pioneering Financial Tools. Build on existing, innovative financial tools that incentivize public-private sector partnerships. For example, encourage bond sales by foundations that increase the money available for giving or engaging with tax credit incentives from the community development sector. Leveraging public and flexible private dollars can unlock capital for community members to advance new health equity ideas.
AN UPSTREAM APPROACH TO HEALTH EQUITY
The Federal Health Equity For All Act will subvert traditional funding priorities by putting individuals and organizations that have been ignored by sustainable investments first in line. Community coalitions, social entrepreneurs, and local and regional government systems are in an advantageous position to reduce inequities. We cannot afford to ignore these change-makers, as our ability to create a robust upstream health equity system depends on their power.
Peer Learning for Innovators. Improving health for all requires a full community and government response. Based on a peer-learning model, the national training academy will support communities, public sector agencies, and businesses to advance health equity by convening the essential collaborative networks they need.
Real-Time Wellness Indicators. Our country should track wellness and determinants of health indicators simultaneously and with the same seriousness as we track the economy. This process will support common, user-friendly, and accessible ways to keep our fingers on the pulse of health and give healthcare insiders, community groups, social entrepreneurs, and all of our paths to engage in innovative and effective solutions.
Community coalitions at the local and regional level, including groups working on health improvement plans, coalition building, and neighborhood advancement.
Community-based entrepreneurs and innovators who are in the most inequitable zip codes and have been bootstrapping models to make health equity possible and sustainable and require durable funding streams to scale.
Local and regional government systems that are being transformed through formally adopted racial equity reform plans, bolstered by layers of advocates and grassroots organizations who are at the bleeding edge of social change and equity advancement.
THE ROAD TO THE FEDERAL ACT
Our goal: By 2023, enact the Federal Health Equity For All Act for health equity innovation.
We must reimagine the public health infrastructure to address racial health disparities in the United States. Building a network of health equity innovation hubs across the nation will ensure an approach that addresses the multi-level factors supporting health.
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There are four essential components to designing and, ultimately, creating the Act itself:
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Advance the Health Equity National Dialogue
Set up spaces for social entrepreneurs, community organizers, policymakers, and healthcare leaders to discuss health equity and their ability to work together. These conversations will set the stage for innovation and new, short-term-implementation health models.
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Build a Social Innovation Fund
Based on Obama’s Social Innovation fund, this program will allow the nation’s most promising practices to surface and find opportunities for scale by collaborating with innovators across sectors. The fund will drive racial health equity and justice by expanding the capacity of about 30 public health entities and programs.
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Create Pioneering Financial Tools
Create the pioneering financial tools described above, which will make public-private sector partnerships a reality. This team of experts will develop financial models that will incentivize private funding.
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Enact the Federal Health Equity for All Act
Finally, we envision the Federal Health Equity For All Act outlasting a single administration. It will recognize health as a human right and create long-term, durable federal and private funding streams for communities as well as state and local governments.