摘要：Health professionals, including social workers, community health workers, public health workers, and licensed health care providers, share common interests and responsibilities in promoting health equity and improving social determinants of health—the conditions in which people live, work, play, and learn. We summarize the underlying causes of health inequity and comparatively poor health outcomes in the United States. We describe barriers to realizing the hope embedded in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, that moving away from fee-for-service payments will naturally drive care upstream as providers respond to greater financial risk by undertaking greater prevention efforts for the health of their patients. We assert that health equity should serve as the guiding framework for achieving the Triple Aim of health care reform and outline practical opportunities for improving care and promoting stronger efforts to address social determinants of health. These proposals include developing a dashboard of measures to assist providers committed to health equity and community-based prevention and to promote institutional accountability for addressing socioeconomic factors that influence health. Social workers share a common commitment with public health workers and health care providers to promote health equity and improve social determinants of health (SDOH)—the conditions in which people live, work, play, and learn. We summarize the case for advancing governmental and institutional policy change to address structural racism and rebalance the nation’s spending priorities. The article breaks new ground with a critical analysis of the strategy embedded in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) 1 to promote population health and includes recommendations for advancing health equity in the current political environment. The article also articulates the historic role of the social work profession in addressing the SDOH and emphasizes the importance of strategic collaboration involving social work, public health, and health care professionals.
