HEALTH CAPABILITY PARADIGM
At its core, health is about your ability to live a fulfilling life. Health gives you the ability to do and achieve what you want.
When a society and its people take health as a priority, we can better shape our values, goals, and ethics about health. We will understand our individual and collective capabilities to improve health, reduce strife, and build well-being.
Health equity for all means that everyone has the opportunity to reach their full health potential. This does not mean that we don’t want individuals to excel in various areas in their lives, we do want that. Creating the conditions for people to develop their talents and reach their potential is the bedrock of human existence, including the American dream. To do this, we need to treat everyone with equal moral worth, and that means taking care of each other through our policies, practices, and institutions. We must show compassion for and take care of each other.
Now, more than ever, there are problems that dramatically inhibit our ability to achieve national and global health equity. These problems are rampant in the United States and across our world, and they lead to disparities and differences in health that are unfair and unjust.