DeSantis administration scrubs 'equity' from state health priorities

[Zorro]

The 2017 State Health Improvement Plan spelled out “equity” as a priority. Not under DeSantis.

In 2017, when Florida Department of Health officials crafted their once-every-five-years list of state health goals, they published what was then a noncontroversial top priority: improving health equity.

The state sought to home in on “avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and health care disparities.” Improving health equity “provides the foundation for success in all the other health-issue priorities,” the 2017 report read.

When the state reconvened in 2022 to release its new set of state health goals, its governor and surgeon general had changed. So had its priorities. No longer was equity the plan’s top priority area — or a listed priority at all.

Instead, the No. 1 priority area had to do with fighting Alzheimer’s disease. The sixth priority area mentioned “social and economic conditions impacting health,” but did not include any mention of race or ethnicity. Although the 22-page state health improvement plan lists correcting certain race-specific health outcomes as goals, the document makes no mention of “equity.”

In an interview, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said the term “health equity” has taken on a political meaning that is unhelpful in addressing important health issues related to race or ethnicity.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/2023/03/23/desantis-ladapo-equity-cancer-alzheimers-diabetes-inequality/