Achieving Health Equity: The Time is Now
Achieving health equity is such an important topic that I decided to write a forward-thinking, remedy-focused book about it. Without lamenting too much about the problems, it is clear that the United States healthcare “system” has been less than optimal for a considerable period of time.
My interest in health equity is longstanding. As a graduate student at the Yale School of Public Health in the 1980s, I became aware of what was then known as a “health status gap” between the White and Black populations. White people were experiencing better health outcomes than Black people.
As I pursued and achieved my doctorate and went on to become a professor of public health, this became my public health focus. It remains so today, because the situation is, unfortunately, the same.
The Persistence of Health Disparities
In 2025, this inequity is not limited to Black people. All emerging majority people (formerly known as minorities) are impacted by health inequity. White people still fare better, healthwise, than all other groups. And it is not because White people are inherently more healthy than emerging majority groups.
More complex issues are at work, particularly related to socioeconomic status. My concern about this issue ultimately led to my research and writing about this topic in several books. The most recent is the 3rd edition of Achieving Health Equity: Context, Controversies, and Remedies, which will be published by Jones & Bartlett Learning in July 2025. (An overview and ordering information are available here.)
Over the years, I have become frustrated by the tendency to focus only on problems. I felt it necessary to explain what the problems were so that public health and other healthcare professionals could gain understanding, leading to remedies. It seemed, however, that remedies continued to get little attention. The constant reiteration of the problems continues to lead the way in most of the literature and research.
Core Issues in Health Inequity
In short, the problems include:
- lack of access to care
- shorter life expectancy (especially compared to nations similar to ours)
- exceedingly high healthcare costs
- and many more.
Specifically, Black people and other emerging majority groups continue to have lower life expectancy than White people. Health indices such as maternal and infant mortality are also very high relative to other nations, with Black mothers and children having the highest rates.
I could go on with this iteration of problems forever, but it is more useful to our nation at this point to discuss remedies. Remedies are how health equity will be achieved.
Moving Beyond Problems to Solutions
In the new edition of Achieving Health Equity; Contexts Controversies, and Remedies, I focus on remedies that are grounded in evidence-based research. These new ideas for disparity resolution require effort and implementation at the policy level. These remedies are not definitive, but they are comprehensive and included in every chapter where problems are discussed.
For example, one remedy is universal health care, which is available in almost every nation other than the United States. Most remedies require exploration of underlying causes of chronic morbidity.
We also need to examine issues such as the following:
- the role that artificial intelligence will or is playing in healthcare
- cost-cutting measures to rein in healthcare costs
- issues impacting underresourced communities
- how to improve the health status of underresourced communities (including better nutritional options)
- how to enhance health literacy
- how telehealth can be a remedy (particularly in rural communities)
and so much more.
The new edition is replete with remedies that can realistically be applied or serve to stimulate new ideas about how to move forward beyond mere discussion and research about the problems.
Many of the remedies identified in the book are common-sense strategies. My goal is to lead readers to delve deeper to comprehend how a nation that takes pride in being the richest allows its people to suffer from such significant healthcare concerns.
Examples of these common-sense remedies include ensuring that underresourced communities have grocery stores that offer produce and other healthy food sources. This would eliminate food deserts and food mirages, concepts derived to explain how some communities can see the healthier food but cannot afford it, or it is not available where they live. Remedies such as community gardens have emerged, but clearly, more is needed.
Evidence-Based Remedies for Health Inequity
The new textbook features case studies designed to help readers examine issues in achieving health equity and to brainstorm about remedies with an eye toward implementation.
Remedies for health inequity are often buried in concerns about money and profit rather than care for the people who are in dire need of help. That’s one reason why the book explores Healthy People 2030, an initiative with many data-driven objectives that could go a long way toward achieving health equity.
The time is now to fix the health problems in the United States and to focus squarely on remedies to achieve health equity for all.
About the Author:
Patti R. Rose, MPH, EdD, is a well-known author and public health educator who is the president and founder of Rose Consulting. She earned a master's degree in health services administration from the Yale University School of Public Health and a doctorate in health education from Columbia University Teachers College. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is Achieving Health Equity: Context, Controversies and Remedies (Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2025). This book is a revision of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Context, Controversies, and Solutions (Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2021).
Achieving Health Equity: Context, Controversies, and Remedies
This new book by Patti Rose maintains a distinct focus on social justice issues associated with health disparities, with an emphasis on solutions.
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