Health Care Access and Equity

Why is this important?

Health care services are only as lifesaving as people’s ability to access that care in an equitable fashion no matter their geography, identities, or life circumstances. The health care system functions like every other system in the United States: in a way that is designed to ensure access to a select few while barring others to the care they need.

Given the way that reproductive and sexual health care are treated differently than all other essential health care needs, inequities in access to care are even more severe. When compounded with the intentionally designed harms of abortion and gender affirming care restrictions, we know that Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, young people, transgender people, queer people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty are pushed further away from the care they need compared to their white, older, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, United States national, wealthy counterparts.

As physicians, we know that it is a critical part of our work to ensure that everyone, no matter who they are, accesses the care they need in a culturally competent, person-centered, trusting, and respectful manner. 

The Outcomes We Seek

1. Access to Care, Not Criminalization
   Disrupting the cycle of surveillance, punishment, and carceral logic in the health care system.
2. Intersectionality In Practice
   Practicing health care can’t stop at abortion; from immigration justice to transgender justice to climate justice, we dream of a world where we’re all free.
3. Equitable Resources, Equitable Outcomes
   Advocating for person-centered solutions to health care that leads to everyone thriving.

“In this moment, physicians must not only advocate, but agitate. We must speak to health care issues and connect them to national and international policy decisions.”

Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi