The Commonwealth Fund is committed to achieving health equity in the United States. What do we mean by that?
To us, health equity means that everyone, regardless of their income, insurance status, geography, gender, race, ethnicity, or ability status, can get high-quality care. Here are just a few examples:
- Wherever you live — in a rural community, a big city, or somewhere in between — you have access to the latest cancer treatments.
- If you’re pregnant, you can receive good prenatal care from clinicians who listen to you and respect your concerns, whether you’re covered through your employer, a marketplace plan, or Medicaid.
- If a doctor puts a pulse oximeter on your finger to measure your oxygen level, the reading is accurate whether you’re Black, Latino, Native American, or white.
Our Work on Health Equity
We try to integrate equity into all of our work at the Commonwealth Fund. We regularly evaluate the state of our health care system to answer such questions as:
- Who’s getting the care they need, and who isn’t?
- Who struggles to pay for care?
- What is the best way to spend our health care dollars to improve Americans’ health and health care?
- Do our nation’s public policies help make affordable, high-quality health care more available to everyone, regardless of where they live, how much money they make, or what race or ethnicity they are?
We examine these questions because our research shows that while there are pockets of excellence throughout the U.S., there are also big gaps where people aren’t getting the care they need and deserve. We try to find out why and where this is happening, and who’s most affected. Most important to us is finding ways to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone in America.
Our Pledge
We believe that achieving a health care system that values and benefits all people equally requires an alliance of people and institutions across sectors of society. Only by working together can we recognize and value the lived experience of all individuals; ensure the delivery of compassionate, affordable, quality health care; combat all forms of discrimination; and strive for equity in leadership and decision-making.
As we work toward our mission, to achieve a high-performing, equitable health care system for all, we pledge the following:
- To expand and diversify the group of individuals and organizations whom we listen to, learn from, and support.
- To draw upon the Fund’s resources, history, and credibility in advancing the principle of equitable care for all people.
- To highlight and address structural and systemic inequities in U.S. health care through our grantmaking, intramural research, and dissemination activities so that the nation can achieve fair and just outcomes for all, especially vulnerable communities and people of color.
- To accelerate efforts within our own organization to cultivate a diverse and collaborative workplace, one where the experiences and perspectives of every staff member are respected and valued, and where all staff can meaningfully contribute to the foundation’s work.
- To commit to concerted, sustained, and multifaceted action.
- To be transparent in our actions and hold ourselves accountable for successes and failures in this endeavor.
Visit our Advancing Health Equity page to learn about our research and grantmaking efforts to eliminate inequities in health care treatment, experience, and outcomes.