Social justice in health care can be understood in several contexts. “The term refers to equitable distribution and redistribution of resources for positive health outcomes, recognition and removal of social and political barriers that impinge on health and promoting parity of participation in decision-making for the allocation and utilization of health resources” (KpandemiaAbu, (2020). Social conditions, political issues, and financial issues with health policy can often create and “perpetuate poverty, unemployment, homelessness, discrimination, lack of education, among other social malaise” (KpandemiaAbu, (2020).
The social consequences of each of these can lead to poor health and health outcomes for individuals and communities. Every 10 years The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services releases health goals and objectives for the country to guide health promotion and disease prevention efforts to improve the health of all Americans. The development of Healthy People 2030 includes establishing a framework for the initiative—the vision, mission, foundational principles, plan of action, and overarching goals—and identifying new objectives. Many of the objectives are never attained due to the constraints of social and economic restraints.
The many social and political issues we experience every day both complicate and constrain social justice in health care delivery and professional practice. Such constraints inherently render our current healthcare system unjust. Being aware of the barriers around us is the start of becoming a change agent for the improvement of healthcare in that area. One of the greatest challenges in healthcare has been and continues to be the cultural disparities in health. “Health disparities are defined as differences in treatment provided to members of different racial or ethnic groups that are not justified by the underlying health conditions or treatment preferences of patients” (IOM, 2003) Disparity means ‘differences’. Health disparity means differences in disease, access to healthcare and related services, poverty, inadequate education, poor living environment, poor nutrition age, and ethnic background.
Such social determinants of health may be summarized in the following 6 categories: “conditions of birth and early childhood, education, work, the social circumstances of elders, a collection of elements of community resilience (such as transportation, housing, security, and sense of community self-efficacy), fairness, which generally amounts to sufficient redistribution of wealth and income to ensure social and economic security and basic equity” (Marmot, 2015, as cited in Berwick, 2020).
Because social determinants of life seriously influence and determine individual health, Healthy People 2030 has expanded its overarching focus for the next decade on social determinants of health with a focus is on 5 domains identified as having a great impact on a person’s health over many years. These 5 domains include economic stability, education access, and quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context. The only way real change can happen is if there is a call for action from the significant voices in health care—that means Big Pharma, large healthcare institutions, colleges of medicine, nursing, social work, pharmacy, and others, medical supply chains, large pharmacy chains, communities, and faith-based organizations. We all must demand changes and help make these changes happen. This paper will discuss how all of these organizations can, and I argue should insist on improving social determinants of health.