Introduction

A nation’s commitment to equal access to healthcare is a reflection of its commitment to equal opportunity for all. Wealth and income are the greatest determinants of health, which is also affected by the social, psychological, spiritual, and environmental factors that have an impact on individuals, families, and communities. Absent public and private policies that assure access to basic building blocks necessary to live a healthy life, the chasm between the health and wellbeing of society’s most wealthy and more economically vulnerable constituencies widens. Although health factors that are inherited and exacerbated by low- to moderate-socioeconomic status cannot be completely undone by access to quality healthcare and a healthy environment, increased access can ameliorate the physical and psychological consequences of social and economic injustice.

The Foundation’s commitment is to improve people’s health and wellbeing, especially those who confront barriers due to low- to moderate-socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and gender. We define health broadly and include within our expanded view the link between physical health and the economic, social, environmental and psychological factors that affect individuals, families, and communities. Special attention will be given to efforts that address the health disparities that exist between the rich and the poor, build bridges between the common concerns of disparate constituencies, and recognize the strategic importance of employing a variety of approaches (coalition building, research, litigation, to name a few) to produce institutional change. Priority attention will be given to efforts that are national in scope and efforts that have the potential of having a multi-state or statewide impact and can be replicated.

GOAL:

The goal of the health program is to improve people’s health and wellbeing, especially those who confront barriers due to low- to moderate-socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or gender; recognizing the link between physical health and the economic, social, environmental, psychological, and spiritual factors that affect individuals, families, and communities.

OBJECTIVE I:

To assure access to quality health care, goods and services, especially for those who confront barriers due to low- to moderate-socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or gender.

Strategies:

• To support efforts which reduce corporate, governmental, and other institutional practices that create barriers to quality health care, goods and services, especially those confronted by people as a result of their low-to moderate-socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or gender.

• To support efforts that increase access to and enhance end-of-life care, especially for those who confront barriers due to low- to moderate-socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or gender.

OBJECTIVE II:

To assure that people, especially those that are vulnerable due to low- to moderate-socioeconomic status, race, or ethnicity, can grow-up, live, and work in a healthy environment and have access to products and food that have not been contaminated in ways that could undermine health.

Strategies:

• To support efforts that address corporate and other institutional practices that have a negative impact on the physical health of workers, especially low-income workers.

• To support efforts to prevent and to reduce corporate and other institutional practices that have a negative impact on health because they degrade the environment of communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, or contaminate products and food in ways that could be injurious to health.