DeSantis administration scrubs 'equity' from state health priorities

[Zorro]

The 2017 State Health Improvement Plan spelled out “equity” as a priority. Not under DeSantis.

In 2017, when Florida Department of Health officials crafted their once-every-five-years list of state health goals, they published what was then a noncontroversial top priority: improving health equity.

The state sought to home in on “avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and health care disparities.” Improving health equity “provides the foundation for success in all the other health-issue priorities,” the 2017 report read.

When the state reconvened in 2022 to release its new set of state health goals, its governor and surgeon general had changed. So had its priorities. No longer was equity the plan’s top priority area — or a listed priority at all.

Instead, the No. 1 priority area had to do with fighting Alzheimer’s disease. The sixth priority area mentioned “social and economic conditions impacting health,” but did not include any mention of race or ethnicity. Although the 22-page state health improvement plan lists correcting certain race-specific health outcomes as goals, the document makes no mention of “equity.”

In an interview, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said the term “health equity” has taken on a political meaning that is unhelpful in addressing important health issues related to race or ethnicity.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/2023/03/23/desantis-ladapo-equity-cancer-alzheimers-diabetes-inequality/

[Farmer-Rick]

1. Equity is a strange term to use

When I think equity, I think value of shares in my house or a business.

But what the stupid in Florida are really doing is not making EQUALITY a priority. Not making "all men are created equal" a goal. Kind of taking away democracy's major point. And minimizing the Declaration of Independence to a wish list.

[Freethinker65]

2. Google equity vs equality

Equity is extremely important in healthcare.

[Farmer-Rick]

4. I did

But I think most people just don't realize what equity means.

It is important, but the word doesn't have the emotional significance we give to the word equality.

[RKP5637]

3. And really they are saying discrimination in healthcare is perfectly OK in FloriDUH. n/t

[Ocelot II]

5. One distinction between equity and equality is this:

Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. In the context of health care, equity would mean a recognition that some populations might need more or specialized medical resources to have a chance to be as healthy as more advantaged populations. So what DeSatan and his minions want to do is not recognize that poor, mostly minority groups shouldn't be allocated special resources to help them achieve the same health outcomes as those good, non-woke White folks.

[TheRealNorth]

6. +1

Exactly.

[NullTuples]

7. There's a massive, liberal vs conservative difference between the two words?

As in,

"Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome."

https://www.marinhhs.org/sites/default/files/boards/general/equality_v._equity_04_05_2021.pdf

In other words, in that context equality assumes a level playing field when racially there never is one. Equity on the other hand, attempts to level the field so the outcomes can be the same.

(and yes, the irony of using a pdf from Marin County's HHS..)