Rich nation, unequal health care: Why a charity that's helped Haiti is aiding the U.S.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/12/18/ [login to see] /rich-nation-unequal-health-care-why-a-charity-thats-helped-haiti-is-aiding-the-u
America spends $3.8 trillion on health care annually, more than any other country. Yet when it comes to creating a more equitable public health system, it could learn a thing or two from some of the world's poorest nations, says Katie Bollbach, executive director of Partners in Health-U.S.

Partners in Health is best known for providing health care in some of the most under-resourced places on Earth. The charity has responded to epidemics like HIV in Haiti and Ebola in West Africa. But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, the nonprofit saw that its expertise was also desperately needed in one of the world's richest countries.

Early on in the pandemic, PIH began working with partners in various U.S. communities, including Newark, N.J., Fulton County, Ga., the Navajo Nation and the state of Massachusetts, to train contact tracers and set up other public health interventions for America's most vulnerable. Low-income communities of color have been disproportionately hard hit throughout the pandemic — and that's made long-standing racial and ethnic health disparities glaringly obvious.