Content area
Full Text
Introduction
"Healthcare in crisis," "structural inequities," "transformation needed." These emboldened words spark much of the conversation about the state of healthcare systems around the world today. According to the Deloitte 2022 Global Health Care Outlook,
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the dynamics of public health. The scope and persistence of this global crisis have exposed vulnerabilities in countries' public health systems and impacted their ability to effectively detect and respond to the continually shifting emergency in a multidimensional way that could have mitigated its impact. Despite some successes, many nations' systems for disease surveillance, outbreak management, and contact tracing and tracking have proved inadequate for the scale of the pandemic's initial and subsequent outbreak.
Most stakeholders agree: sweeping change is needed. This type of change takes time. It will take 20, 40, maybe even 60 years to rebuild our healthcare systems. This is time many people, particularly those in underserved communities, just don't have.
Even before the pandemic, half the world didn't have access to basic and essential healthcare services.2 No access to hospitals. Little access to healthcare providers. Lack of health education. This problem has been magnified due to world events, exacerbating existing inequalities and inequities. Why? These communities often have higher rates of homelessness or housing insecurity, coupled with low wage work, leaving them without access to healthcare or the resources needed to take care of themselves well. These and many other social determinants of health put them at greater risk for health issues, including COVID-19 and many non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, and cancer.
A recent editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), written by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, said it well: "The goal must be to design a global health security regime that will reduce morbidity and mortality and improve well-being across all populations in all countries. It is the right thing to do, and it is in the enlightened self-interest of each nation because viruses like SARS-CoV-2 do not stop at borders. Without an equitable and fully inclusive approach, every country and every person is vulnerable."3 While there's certainly merit to a long-term view towards rebuilding health systems, people in these communities need and deserve...