About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

19 Yale J. Health Pol'y L. & Ethics 122 (2019-2020)
Health Justice Strategies to Combat the Pandemic: Eliminating Discrimination, Poverty, and Health Disparities during and after COVID-19

handle is hein.journals/yjhple19 and id is 611 raw text is: Benfer et al.: Health Justice Strategies to Combat the Pandemic: Eliminating Dis Health Justice Strategies to Combat the Pandemic: Eliminating Discrimination, Poverty, and Health Disparities During and After COVID-19 Emily A. Benfer, Seema Mohapatra, Lindsay F. Wiley & Ruqaiijah Yearby* Abstract: Experience with past epidemics made it predictable that people living in poverty, people of color, and other marginalized groups would bear the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic due to the social determinants of health (SDOH). The SDOH are subdivided into structural and intermediary determinants. Structural determinants include forms of subordination (discrimination and poverty) that influence intermediary determinants (health care, housing, and employment). The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified and accelerated the harms caused by these determinants, limiting health equity among historically marginalized groups and low-income populations. Black, Latino, and Indigenous populations have higher COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, higher rates of unemployment, less access to health care, and greater risk of eviction during the pandemic, among other significant inequities. Without robust and swift government interventions, the impacts of the pandemic will be wide and deep. This Article analyzes mechanisms of these determinants in the pandemic setting and provides solutions using the health justice framework. The health justice framework offers three principles: structural, supportive, and empowering. First, legal and policy responses must address the structural determinants of health. Second, interventions mandating * Emily A. Benfer, Visiting Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law; LLM, Georgetown Law Center; J.D., Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Seema Mohapatra, tenured Associate Professor of Law and Dean's Fellow at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law; J.D., Northwestern University School of Law; M.P.H. in Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale University School of Public Health; B.A. (Natural Sciences, with a minor in Women's Studies), Johns Hopkins University. Lindsay F. Wiley, Professor of Law; Director, Health Law and Policy Program, American University Washington College of Law; J.D., Harvard Law School; M.P.H., Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; A.B., Harvard University. Ruqaiijah Yearby, Professor of Law and Member of the Center for Health Law Studies, Saint Louis University, School of Law; Co-Founder and Executive Director, Institute for Healing Justice, Saint Louis University; J.D., Georgetown University Law Center; M.P.H. in Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.; B.S. (Honors Biology), University of Michigan. We would like to thank Crystal Lewis, Health Equity and Policy Fellow, Saint Louis University, School of Law, for her contribution. Authors are listed in alphabetical order to denote equal contributions to the article. 122

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most