California Takes Step Toward Creating Health Equity Fund

The State of California moved closer to establishing a health equity fund as the state Legislature’s budget agreement would dedicate $100 million of its budget to an ongoing health disparities grant program, the Health Equity and Racial Innovation initiative.

In their budget proposal, the legislature has proposed ‘$115 million annually to support health equity and racial justice interventions including $100 million for grants to community-based organizations, clinics and tribal organizations to address health disparities and $15 million for the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund’ on an ongoing basis.

The bill creating the fund, AB1038, was sponsored by Assemblymember Mike Gipson and passed the Assembly floor on a 62-2 bipartisan vote.

 “A legacy of structural racism and underinvestment in communities has led to a disproportionate burden of largely preventable, pre-existing health, economic and other inequities in low-income and communities of color in California,” said Mary Pittman, CEO and president of the Public Health Institute, in a statement. “That’s why the Public Health Institute joined partners to call for the creation of, and investment in, a California Health Equity and Racial Justice fund. The Fund is our opportunity—our imperative—to make health equity and racial justice a part of California’s DNA.”

 “We support the need for grants to address health disparities, and we look forward to working with the Office of Health Equity to ensure communities also have the flexibility and power to address the root causes of disparities—like housing, food and job security and safe communities—that they identify as critical in their neighborhoods and that are inextricably linked to health outcomes,” Pittman added.

She added that her organization has learned through its work leading Together Toward Health, the state’s vaccine equity engagement initiative, that supporting community wisdom, networks and trusted messengers is the best way to build trust and strengthen health in communities that have been historically failed by state systems. The additional inclusion of an annual $15 million for the creation of a Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund is a landmark opportunity to bolster power and support for one of California’s most overlooked, highest impacted and least served communities, Pittman said.

The Health Equity and Racial Justice Fund coalition, a group working to create the fund, includes the Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership (APPEAL), Black Women for Wellness Action Project, California Black Health Network, California Black Women’s Health Project, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, Public Health Advocates, Public Health Institute, Roots Community Health Center, and Roots of Change.

 In a statement, it called the fund “a bold and innovative proposal to address both social determinants of health and structural racism. Our package aims to both transform community conditions and institutional/government systems to promote health
equity and racial justice and reduce specific health and social disparities. Our coalition of over 150 advocates urge the Governor to join the legislature in this bold and necessary proposal to address structural racism and inequities in health outcomes. We look forward to working with the Legislature and Governor in the weeks leading up to the budget deadline.”