HEALTH EQUITY
Health Committee
The National Health Equity Committee, chaired by Sharah Denton and Co-Chair, Dr. Angelia Elgin focuses on six health targets. (Affordable Health Care, Breast Cancer, COVID-19, Maternal Health, Mental Health and HIV/AIDS).
The committee was developed to represent experts and professionals throughout the country and from various stages of life and experience. The Health Equity Committee works closely with the Good Health Wins initiative.
Affordable Health Care
Essentially, affordability is a function of income, spending, and judgments about the value of goods and services for their price. It reviews a range of measures that capture the cost burden for individuals and families with different forms of coverage, in different financial circumstances, and with different health concerns.
Many are experiencing significant problems due to health care costs, either through high deductibles that discourage them from seeking health care, uninsurance or gaps in insurance benefits, or the less-noticed erosion of wages due to rising health insurance premiums. To transform affordability from an aspirational goal to a policy aim, policymakers will need to consider several key issues, which can include: the cost of care versus the cost of insurance, how to fairly distribute costs, consumers’ most salient affordability concerns, the root causes of financial barriers to care, and the differential impact of various policies on stakeholders.
Breast Cancer
Studies have shown that the risk for breast cancer is due to a many factors. These factors influence the risks include being a woman and aging. Most breast cancers are found in women who are 50 years old or older.
Some women will get breast cancer even without any other risk factors that they know of. Having a risk factor does not mean you will get the disease, and not all risk factors have the same effect. Most women have some risk factors, but most women do not get breast cancer.
Maternal Health
The U.S. health care system has historically failed people of color, including during the crucial time of pregnancy. Multiple health, societal and economic factors are all contributors, including unequal access to maternity care. These chronic inequities and unequal access to quality care contribute to higher maternal and infant health complication rates.
- Black women are nearly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes compared to White women.
- The rate of infant mortality (death) among Black babies is almost two times higher than the national average (5.4 per 1,000 live births). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of infant mortality (death) among Black babies in the U.S. is 10.6 per 1,000 live births.
- Preterm birth rates are 50 percent higher among Black women, than they are among White or Hispanic women.
- A Maternal and Infant Mortality Crisis
Mental Health
The HEC Mental Health component of NCNW focuses on several key focus areas.
Alzheimer’s
The HEC Mental Health component of NCNW has partnered with the National Alzheimer’s Association. This partnership focuses on educational resources and support for caregivers and their families as well as ways to identify potential signs in our loved ones.
Maternal Health
Mens Mental Health in partnership with the Charles L. Franklin Association
Mental Health and COVID Long Haulers
Mental Health Disparities in African American Children.
COVID-19/GoodHealthWINs
Good Health WINS begins with education. Our advocates understand the importance of immunizations and are working to create an infrastructure for good health. This is achieved by reducing health disparities, increasing vaccination opportunities, vaccination education and identifying the drivers of vaccine hesitancy.
HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS is still an ongoing issue among African Americans and Latinos. Although, it is no longer a death sentence, it is still a disease that carries stigma. The HEC committee is focused on providing educational resources in partnership with the Young Adult Committee, Social Justice Committee and Affiliate organizations across the United States. These resources include, providing free prevention resources, information relative to PEP and PrEP and much more.