Health Equity

Health Equity is the attainment of the highest possible level of health for all people. It means achieving the environmental, social, economic and other conditions in which all people have the opportunity to attain their highest possible level of health. Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and healthcare disparities.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has developed initial policies and plans for embedding health equity across internal and external work through accreditation, workforce development, data management, and planning efforts. There are a number of divisions and bureaus that have excelled at developing comprehensive strategies to address health inequities and develop internal strategies to support health equity infrastructure. In 2022 and beyond, Iowa HHS is in a position to significantly expand efforts to ensure that all people across the state have the ability to attain their highest level of health. We can accomplish this by explicitly tying a justice-centered approach to identifying and addressing pressing health inequities in historically excluded populations with a specific focus on people of color/indigenous people, people with disabilities, people who identify as LGBTQ+, people who are poor, and people with other demographic characteristics that have been historically excluded from access to opportunities and services to support optimal health.

A health equity framework is required to identify the internal opportunities to fully integrate health equity perspectives and capacities and to understand and embrace the unique social and community context within Iowa. We can also identify core public health roles, a root cause analysis to health inequities, and opportunities to shift roles and resources to meet our obligations to residents to support upstream public health strategies while addressing critical health and environmental issues.

A primary objective in the next five years (2022-2026) is to ensure that Iowa HHS has thoroughly assessed and addressed opportunities to significantly shift efforts and resources towards addressing institutional and structural inequities that lead to disproportionately negative outcomes for some populations. Foundational work includes adoption of this health equity framework and focus areas, and a health equity implementation plan.

• Organizational Culture
• Internal Policies and Procedures
• Data Equity Framework
• Planning and Performance Improvement
• Partnerships and Community Engagement

• The Health Equity Drivers' Forum
• Resources for Working Toward Health Equity
• Legislative and Administrative Rules Assessment Guides
• Contracting for Health Equity Guidelines
• New Employee Health Equity Orientation and other trainings

• HHS Health Equity Policy
• HHS Health Equity Framework
• Equity Update for DHS Council on Human Services 3-10-22