José Rico and Pilar Audair-Reed of Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Greater Chicago.
These principles of solidarity operate with the necessary awareness that the freedoms of Black and Brown Chicagoans are bound together, even as racial injustice affects each community in unique ways; we cannot achieve equity while we are being killed by police or criminalized and separated from our families.
This calls for a principle of solidarity to value and provide health care for our most vulnerable residents. We need to pass legislation that strengthens hospital community benefit requirements by mandating that money be allocated to the direct provision of care and activities impacting social determinants of health. In addition, we must commit to instituting a health equity fund, which would require hospitals that don’t meet benefit requirements to contribute the difference to public health clinics in medically disadvantaged areas, to ensure meaningful connection to health services for people in all neighborhoods.
