Health Equity

Health equity refers to the principle of ensuring that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health. It emphasizes the removal of obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to essential resources. Health equity seeks to address and rectify disparities in health outcomes and determinants that are systematically associated with social, economic, and environmental disadvantages. It recognizes that inequities in health are often rooted in inequalities in resources, access to healthcare services, and opportunities for a healthy life. Achieving health equity requires social justice, advocacy for policies that promote equitable access to health resources, and efforts to improve the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.