Social Determinants Impact Health More Than Health Care

Today’s post first ran on Health Populi on November 9.
The factors of where people are born, live, work and age — social determinants — shape human health more than health care. Yet in the U.S. much more resource per capita is funneled into healthcare services than into social ones.
Beyond Health Care: The Role of Social Determinants in Promoting Health and Health Equity was published by The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured in November 2015, calling attention to the opportunity and wisdom of baking health into all public policy.
The social determinants of health (SDOH) include economic stability, the physical environment and neighborhood, education, food, community and social context, and the health care system, shown in the second exhibit. Together, these can bolster, or diminish, personal health outcomes — and exacerbate public health disparities, such as peoples’ access to current evidence-based care, treatments and procedures, and basic primary care services that can prevent folks from showing up in emergency departments downstream, sicker and costing more.
On the health insurance front, Medicaid reforms have the opportunity to bring SDOHs into payment design, such as providing incentives for coordinating care, and identifying patients who should benefit from SNAP (food stamp) benefits but aren’t.
In healthcare, there are models of community-based programs that are making a difference in local markets for health citizens. In Camden, New Jers...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - November 24, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Consumer Health Care Health Reform Innovation Mental Health Source Type: blogs