By Maddie Mason, Senior Associate, Policy  

The National Health Council (NHC) and National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) recently released a Health Equity Consensus Statement and are proud to announce that 58 of the NHC’s 63 voluntary health agency member, also known as patient advocacy organizations, Chief Executive Officers signed the Statement.   

The Consensus Statement was derived from our Call to Action and serves as a public commitment to reduce inequities within the health care system. Specifically, we are committing to: 

• Promote an inclusive, equitable, accessible, and high-quality care delivery system; 
• Advocate for equitable access to affordable and comprehensive health insurance coverage; 
• Partner with organizations that have a track record in addressing social determinants of health to reduce health disparities; and 
• Collaborate with the biomedical and health-services research and the health economics ecosystem to support equity in development and valuation of new and innovative treatments and services. This includes the collection and reporting of demographic factors in research to include race, disability status, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and gender identity, and other factors to help identify and eliminate biases. 

We recognize the complexity of the inequities within our health care system, and in order to have effective solutions there will need to be action amongst the entire health care ecosystem and collaboration amongst organizations outside the health care sphere, including policymakers at all levels of government, employers, health insurers, researchers, clinicians, caregivers, patients, and others. 

In 2021, we are planning the following activities around health equity that will involve the entire NHC membership: 

• We will be broadening our outreach efforts to engage other NHC membership categories in supporting the Consensus Statement. 
• We will host a series of Roundtables over the next year focused on those action areas identified in the Consensus Statement. 
• We will convene a small group to help us plan for the year ahead and establish a specific planning group for each of the Roundtables. 
• We are identifying ways for the NHC to promote ongoing communication and information sharing about equity issues and best practices with our full membership. 

For more information, please check out our new health equity page on our website or reach out to NHC’s Director of Policy Jennifer Dexter at jdexter@nhcouncil.org.