This October 6 virtual seminar co-sponsored by University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) and Health Affairs focused on how both race-neutral and race-conscious policymaking strategies have failed to effectively address structural racism in health care. Panel members discussed a new Health Affairs paper proposing a switch to racism-conscious policymaking.
Opening the session, moderator Atheendar Venkataramani, MD, PhD, noted, “There’s been increasing interest around advancing health equity as racial disparities in many outcomes still persist. And the key challenges seem to be formally defining what is meant by ‘health equity’ and then operationalizing that definition into action.” Venkataramani is an LDI Senior Fellow and Director of the Opportunity for Health Lab at the Perelman School of Medicine.