Health Equity Pledge
Our democratic freedom guarantees the right of all in our nation to strive for social justice and equitable opportunity. It is this pledge of equity in access to quality healthcare, culturally & socially responsible education, housing and economic opportunity that cries out for our nation to focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us. It is to realize the dream of a healthy society that we unite in a pledge of equity for all. It is this pledge that calls for us to act in a manner that is just, fair and gracious to temper self interest in favor of the greater good.
We the People Pledge to:
- Ensure equitable access to quality health care for all persons residing within our nation;
- Strengthen the public health infrastructure to ensure that patients receiving care within our public health system have access to the same level of services afforded within the private healthcare system;
- Re-build a national model of public health as the gold standard for health policy, research and innovation to drive fair competition within the private health market;
- Promote healthy communities and green environments for all people and address the injustice of environmental hazards, homelessness, dilapidated housing and global environmental effects on health outcomes and health disparities;
- Support public policies to provide fair economic opportunities (including a fair living wage) for workers and their families to reduce poverty's impact on health outcomes;
- Promote a national campaign of community wellness with an emphasis on prevention and primary care as the foundation of a quality healthcare system;
- Educate ourselves, health professional students and our communities on mechanisms, links and causation between health outcomes, disease management and our nation's social and economic policies;
- Ensure the recruitment, retention, and matriculation of underrepresented persons in the medical and health professions. Underrepresented persons include racial, ethnic, religious, gender, disability status, sexual orientation or economic minorities; and
- Ensure every student receives a quality primary education and is afforded the opportunity for higher education based on ability, regardless of socioeconomic background.
In this pledge, we in the medical professions call on our fellow citizens not only to strive for non-malifience (to do no harm), but to reach for the larger goal of beneficence (to do good). This we can do. This we must do.
SIGN THE HEALTH EQUITY PLEDGE
By so signing, I join my neighbors from the streets of the inner city, to the fields of the Midwest to the halls of Congress to pledge to the pursuit of health equity to eliminate social & economic injustice and achieve a healthy society.