Dr Bruce Sherman Explores the Role of Equitable Health Benefit Design in the US

In a discussion about health equity in the US, Bruce Sherman, MD, medical director, North Carolina Business Coalition on Health, and adjunct professor, Department of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, addressed the importance of equitable health benefit design.

Transcript

Equitable health benefit design is central to addressing health inequities in the US, according to your article. Can you elaborate on the significance of equitable benefits in the context of health care access and outcomes?

Certainly, and thanks for the opportunity to respond to your questions. From the standpoint of equitable benefits broadly, these include access to affordable and accessible health care, as well as stable work, a living wage, and opportunity for professional or career advancement. But from a health benefit standpoint, specifically, the employees have to be able to access care, they have to be able to afford the care that they are going to receive, and the benefits also have to be relevant to employees.

So we've seen a great deal of interest and recognition of the fact that unmet social needs are a priority for many employees where they may actually put greater focus on those concerns than their physical health because of personal priority. So employers need to understand: What do employees need? So it's not just accessibility and affordability, but it's also relevant to the employees.

The other critical component relates to relationship-centered care and the fact that there is so much medical mistrust, implicit bias, systemic factors that negatively impact individuals, particularly in minority subpopulations, in lower income subgroups, that we are only going to see improvements in health outcomes and a narrowing of the health inequity gap if individuals can have a meaningful and trusted relationship with their clinician because that's what will help to overcome medical mistrust and implicit bias. And when that takes place, that's when we will see outcomes improve.