Health equity is “when everyone has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible.” It is directly tied to factors outside of what we might consider the “traditional” domain of health, such as access to health care or public health programming. It is also determined by the fair distribution of resources as well as social and structural systems, most of which are shaped either directly or indirectly by law. Law can be a powerful influence on health, and it is arguably a determinant of health and equity in health. Indeed, an increasing awareness of this relationship between law and health is critical to the growing movement to declare racism a public health crisis.
In this Web Forum, the CDC’s Public Health Law Program (PHLP) and the National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (NLAPH) consider the relationship between health equity and law, the implications of structural racism for health equity, and a pathway that identifies strategies for using law to advance health equity.
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