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.
“We believe strongly that reproductive justice—the ability to make choices about our bodies and whether and when to have children, and the ability to parent children in a safe and secure community—is a fundamental human right.” In an op-ed in The Hill, RWJF Vice President for Policy Avenel Joseph and Leah Jones, deputy director at SisterSong, shine a spotlight on America’s maternal mortality crisis and what we must do as a nation to protect that right for all women and every person who gives birth.
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is a moment to celebrate—the investments in climate change and healthcare needs alone are historic. But we shouldn't lose sight of how the ambitious legislation envisioned last fall—including everything from paid family and medical leave to the extended Child Tax Credit and more—was sacrificed because of the politics of the moment. As the nation’s largest health philanthropy, RWJF had hoped for a far broader and more equitable effort to help create an America in which race and ethnicity, income level, neighborhood, disability, occupation, and immigration status no longer determine how long and how well people live. The fight must continue, write Richard Besser, RWJF president and CEO, and Avenel Joseph, vice president of Policy, until health equity is a reality for all rather than a distant aspiration for too many.
Melissa Blair
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation media@rwjf.org or (609) 627-5937
For general inquiries, please contact our main number:
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The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
Community hospitals are facing an impossible dilemma —Vox
HHS Moves To Overhaul Privacy Rules For Substance Abuse Patients —Axios