The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is working to build a Culture of Health.
Since 1972, RWJF has supported research and programs to uncover the many factors that impact health, and enable people and communities to be as healthy as possible. Working alongside public health leaders, entrepreneurs, research scientists, policymakers and community leaders, the Foundation is committed to ensuring that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to achieve better health where we live, learn, work and play.
March of Dimes President and CEO Stacey Stewart and RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser write that we must dismantle structural racism and address health inequities to ensure that all pregnant people—regardless of skin color, income, or zip code—can have healthy pregnancies, healthy babies and the ability to thrive. That's birth justice. By prioritizing critical federal and state policy changes and centering the voices and experiences of Black, Indigenous and other people of color, we can save lives and end suffering now.
"Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for the many millions of people who have and will receive health care coverage under the ACA. Now we must finish the job to ensure that every person in the United States—no matter their skin color, income level, or zip code—has health insurance and a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest life possible."
In a letter to the editor, RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser, Trustee David Williams, and Alumna Risa Lavizzo-Mourey note that medical journals understate and don't adequately connect systemic racism and health. They emphasize—as they did in a recent New England Journal of Medicine commentary—that we must fund and encourage research that explores why skin color has an outsized impact on how well and long a person lives.
Tobacco is responsible for more than 1,000 deaths per day and disproportionately affects people in communities of color and those with low incomes. When it comes to achieving health equity, there is no substitute for federal action. The FDA has the authority and evidence base to ban menthol cigarettes and sharply reduce nicotine levels in all cigarettes. Let's hope it has found the will to do so.
As both parents and pediatricians, RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser and Executive Vice President Julie Morita stress the need to redouble our efforts to keep children safe and offer three fundamental steps to mitigate the pandemic’s effects on children.
In politics today, language is often weaponized in an attempt to end the discussion and blunt any policy changes. We cannot let this happen with the concept of a more equitable nation, pens RWJF Executive Vice President Julie Morita. We need health equity in America in the same way that we need clean water, nutritious foods, safe streets and good schools.
President and CEO Richard Besser and Executive Vice President Julie Morita, like many people across the country, had questions before recently getting their first COVID-19 shots. They needed answers before rolling up their own sleeves and recommending COVID-19 vaccines to family and friends. We need to give every person in this country the space, and grace, to make up their minds. After all, they write, trust must be earned.
The American Rescue Plan Act provides hope for more than 100 million people, yet if we believe in an America in which everyone has opportunity and every person has equal value, our work is far from complete, pens RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser. Even if the pandemic were to end this year, the people for whom the legislation’s provisions are a lifeline still will be living in a nation steeped in inequities that cannot be eliminated with a single act of Congress, no matter how vast.
Melissa Blair
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation media@rwjf.org or (609) 627-5937
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The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
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