Health

In this "friend-of-the-court" brief before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, The Opportunity Agenda urges the court to read the New York City Human Rights Law as its authors intended it to operate: as a broad protection for New Yorkers against all discrimination, even when caused by problematic systems rather than prejudiced individuals.  

This memo offers guidance for using the 2009 State of Opportunity in America report, which examines various dimensions of opportunity, including health care, wealth and income, education, and incarceration. While expanding opportunity in America remains a goal of policymakers and advocates alike, this report finds that access to full and equal opportunity is still very much a mixed reality. Our recommendations to address this reality offer concrete ideas for moving us forward together.

Telling the story of health care equity is a critical contribution to the country’s ongoing dialogue about how to improve our health care system.

This publication contains a balance of historical context, framing advice, resources, practical tools and strategies for moving toward a new political conversation.  

Held December 2, 2007 in Des Moines, IA, the Heartland Presidential Forum kicked off the Campaign for Community Values.  The resulting press coverage included a values dimension otherwise missing in much of the caucus coverage.

This report seeks to identify state policies that promote equitable health care access and quality and to evaluate existing laws, regulations, or reform proposals in five states—Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and California. 

The Opportunity Agenda's first book, All Things Being Equal, documents critical ideas about the state of opportunity. 

If the promise of opportunity is a core national commitment, it is essential to measure our success in fulfilling that commitment.  This report assesses the nation’s progress toward protecting and expanding opportunity for all Americans and encourages our policymakers, through bold leadership and innovative policies, to ensure the promise of o

Originally conceived as a “shadow report” to the 2007 U.S. Periodic Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, this report was written by a coalition of experts in the fields of health policy and environmental justice, including academics and members of civil society organizations working to advance the right to health and the right to a healthy environment in the United States.

The state of health care in the United States is in serious disrepair. Prosperous though it is, the U.S. is the only industrialized country with no universal access to health care, resulting in over 45 million uninsured Americans. Universal and equal access to high quality healthcare is essential to fulfilling the American ideal of opportunity for all. It is also the human right of all people, simply by virtue of their humanity. Bringing this human right home to the United States is therefore crucial to realizing the American Dream.

More information on our mapping projects, Health Care That Works, and Map4Change.

Check out our channel on YouTube.  See video clips that show the state of opportunity—or lack thereof—in America. We feature man on the street interviews, produced video spots, mini documentaries, and other videos that we encourage people to share with their friends, and hope that social justice advocates will use in their work.

Bi-Weekly Public Opinion Roundup

The upcoming November elections draw near, both Democrats and Republicans are in an election state of mind. Both parties are focusing on trying to appease their voter base, while Obama and his administration push forward to make due on some promises such as health care reform and the repeal of the ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell’ military policy.

We are already well into September, the President is back in the White House, and Congress is in session. As we are re-engaging in the heated public discourse, it's important to know where public opinion stands today, and how it's shifted, if at all, in the past few months. Below is a rundown of important findings on health care reform and from a pioneering survey of immigrants in the US, which were released during the summer. The focus is primarily on data, which can inform advocates' communications, and strategy.

As mounting evidence shows, the practice of busting myths - lining up facts to disprove an opponent's false assertions - just doesn't work.  Most recently, Sharon Begley takes on the practice in Newsweek, exploring why people believe nutty stories about health care reform or supposed controversies about the president's birth certificate.  She reports that, basically, people want to believe what they want to believe and they predisposed to ignoring any facts that clash with those beliefs.

If you've been following my occasional blogs arguing for a more robust vision for health care reform, often titled "When Insurance Isn't Enough," you know that I start from a values-based framework, the idea that the opportunity to reach our highest attainable standard of health is a right inherent to our dignity as human beings.  And then I usually go on to highlight an aspect of health care that isn't getting the sort of coverage or discussion that it should be, given the almost myopic focus on cost-cutting and insurance coverage; in the past, I've highlighted preventative care, healthy infrastructure like walkable communities, care coordination, and enabling services.  Today, I'd like to take a step back and think about one of the keystones of the current push for reform: the idea of "universal" health care.

As the United States government prepares for further personnel shifts in the administration, Americans are anxious to know the nominees' priorities. How refreshing, then, to see health and justice for the American people trump politics. As Judge Sotomayor faces the scrutiny of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Obama has nominated Regina Benjamin to be the next Surgeon General-- America's "top doctor." Part of what will make, and has made, these women such phenomenal public servants is their refusal to be snagged by the issue of abortion.

We teach our kids to wash their hands during flu season, we teach them to wear a seat belt in the car, we teach them not to talk to strangers. We do these things in order to give our children the knowledge to protect themselves and achieve all that they are capable of.  Part of ensuring that American children have access to the opportunity is ensuring their safety.

Focusing solely on health care insurance and the overall national spending on health care will not get us the reform we need.  The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a piece by Michael Porter, Ph.D., arguing that true reform requires not just universal coverage, but "restructuring the care delivery system."  While the author is, within his own framework, still making a cost argument, he points us toward not just his stated need for a "value-based system," but also toward a &

As the country considers how we might reform our health care system, it is important to note that good health requires not just health insurance, but also the flexibility to care for oneself or one's family when sick, and to help prevent the spread of contagious diseases through the workplace.  Today, Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced a bill, dubbed the Healthy Families Act, that would guarantee American workers up to 7 paid sick days each year, and allow workers to take these paid sick days to care for ill family members.

Americans are demanding, more than ever, change in our health care system.  We want meaningful reform that means that we will be able to get the care we need, so that we can be healthier and productive as individuals, families, communities, and as a nation. But when the health care reform debate is narrowed to a discussion of insurance coverage, rather than actual ability to access quality care, the discussion falsely considers health care to be a commodity, like Nintendo Wiis.

Last week, President Obama hosted a health care summit, initiating a process to fulfill a key campaign promise: fixing our broken health care system. Critics, and more than a few allies, wondered aloud whether he is taking on too much at once in pushing for health care reform while restarting the economy and repairing our banking system. To the contrary, the question is whether he will take on enough.

You may have already seen C-SPAN's Survey of Presidential Leadership, released today in honor of Presidents' Day. If you have, you know that the last White House occupant, George W. Bush, did not fare very well amongst the 65 historians surveyed, coming in at number 36, making him the 7th worst president in the participants' estimation.

The Opportunity Agenda is pleased to announce the release of our 2009 State of Opportunity in America report. The report documents America’s progress in protecting opportunity for everyone who lives here, and finds that access to full and equal opportunity is still very much a mixed reality.