Horizon Joins National Effort to Confront Racial Health Disparities
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Where you live or the color of your skin should never be factors in your health and wellbeing
Neither where you live, nor the color of your skin should ever be factors in the quality of health care you receive or your health and wellness. Achieving that goal is the focus of the National Health Equity Strategy, an initiative launched in April 2020 by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and 34 other Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across America.
The health insurers will use the deep ties and understanding they have of local communities they serve to focus the multi-year effort on four conditions that disproportionately affect communities of color:
- Maternal health
- Behavioral Health
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular conditions
The effort begins with a focus on maternal health and goal of reducing racial disparities by 50% in five years. Horizon is already working closely with State leaders and RWJBarnabas Health on a strategy to address post-partum mood disorders, a condition that impacts 1 in 9 new mothers. The rate of illness in Black mothers may be even higher, but many go undiagnosed.
Horizon is also partnering with the State supporting a critical effort to increase COVID-19 testing and vaccination in the underserved communities that have been hardest hit in New Jersey.
Working together, the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans intend to change the trajectory of health disparities and reimagine a more equitable healthcare system. A national advisory panel of doctors, public health experts and community leaders will provide guidance to the effort.
Horizon’s efforts are part of the company’s Pledge to achieve positive and lasting change, a multi-pronged effort to promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion both at the Company and in the communities of New Jersey that it serves.
