Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

Moments of crisis require big, bold ideas. In this chapter we will zoom out of our close examination of the Northern Manhattan Community Voices Collaborative experience to propose ways to scale up the things that worked for us in order to make them applicable at a national level. With this chapter we honor the intent of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in its support of learning laboratories across the nation. Our goal is to contribute to the collective dialogue on how to improve the health care system. Specifically, we propose that making a healthier nation and reducing health care costs will require more than simply moving toward universal health coverage — which is essential — or implementing technologies to digitalize medical records — which is useful. As epidemiologists would say, those things are necessary but not sufficient to overhaul our ailing health care system. Instead, we propose to reduce health care costs and improve health care access by implementing a national prevention program through collaboration based on a new health compact with society — one that delivers on the promise of justice for all and (paraphrasing our forefathers/mothers) the pursuit of health.

Disciplines

Health Law and Policy | Health Policy | Law | Medicine and Health | Social Policy | Social Work

Center/Program

Center for Institutional and Social Change

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