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Health Equity

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What Is Health Equity?

Illustration of three people of different heights reaching for fruit on an overhanging tree limb. Two of the people are given boxes to accommodate their heights so they can reach the fruit of the tree while the third person is tall enough to reach the fruit without a box.

As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health equity is the “state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health.” The reality is that not everyone in the United States—or in Spokane County—has the same ability to access the care and resources that promote their highest level of health.

Accessing the Highest Level of Health Doesn’t Look the Same for Everyone

Health equity isn’t about using the same solution for everyone. Health equity has been illustrated in different ways over the years, but one excellent analogy is the bicycle. Think of access to health care and resources like getting from point A to point B on a bicycle. Four individuals are trying to get from point A to point B, and each is given the same bike, designed for someone who is average height, but

A tall man riding a bike that is too small.

Person 1 is quite tall,

A woman using a wheel chair due to a mobility impairment with a standard bicycle that she cannot use.

Person 2 uses a wheelchair,

A woman riding a bicycle that fits.

Person 3 is of average height,

A child trying to ride a bicycle that is too tall.

Person 4 is a child.

Giving each person the same bike doesn’t help everyone get from point A to point B as easily. Person 3 is the only one who will be able to ride the bike comfortably. The others may not be able to use what they have access to because the bike doesn’t fit or because it doesn’t help them get from A to B at all. 

You can think of this as being where health equity comes in. Person 1 needs a bike with a larger frame, person 2 would benefit from a recumbent handcycle, and person 4 needs a child’s bike that fits—perhaps with training wheels!

A group of people are using bicycles that meet their needs. A tall man, small child, and average-height woman are riding bicycles that fit them. A woman with a mobility impairment uses a handcycle.

Health equity isn’t about giving everyone the same access. It’s about meeting people where they are depending on their needs and abilities.

“Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and social determinants of health — and to eliminate disparities in health and health care”1

About the Health Equity Program

According to the American Public Health Association, the strength of a public health system rests on its capacity to effectively deliver 10 Essential Public Health Services:

  1. Assess and monitor population health.
  2. Investigate, diagnose, and address health hazards and root causes.
  3. Communicate effectively to inform and educate.
  4. Strengthen, support, and mobilize communities and partnerships.
  5. Create, champion, and implement policies, plans, and laws.
  6. Utilize legal and regulatory actions.
  7. Enable equitable access.
  8. Build a diverse and skilled workforce.
  9. Improve and innovate through evaluation, research, and quality improvement.
  10. Build and maintain a strong organizational infrastructure for public health.

To achieve optimal health for all, each service needs to actively promote policies, systems, and services that enable good health and remove obstacles and systemic and structure barriers that have resulted in health inequities. The Health Equity program at Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) focuses on ensuring health equity is centered in everything the health district does.

The program works at the organizational, programmatic, and community level to advance health equity within Spokane County. The program carries out its work by examining barriers to health across many different populations in the county and working with marginalized communities to ensure their needs are responded to appropriately. The Health Equity program and the health district’s health equity work are guided by SRHD’s 2020 Health Equity Response Resolution and the 2025 amendment.

To learn more about the progress SRHD and the Health Equity Program made in 2024 as well as plans for 2025, see the 2024 Health Equity Report. 

  1. US Department of Health and Human Services. Section IV: Advisory Committee findings and recommendation. In: The Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020. Phase I report: recommendations for the framework and format of Healthy People 2020.http://www.healthypeople.gov/sites/default/files/phaseI_0.pdf. Quoted by: Jack L Jr. Advancing Health Equity, Eliminating Health Disparities, and Improving Population Health.Prev Chronic Dis.2021;18:210264. doi:10.5888/pcd18.210264