The "dual problem" of U.S. population health is that population health is poor, while health care spending is high. These issues are interrelated, but only partly so. Poor population health does increase the need for health care services, which tends to increase spending. But the more important roots of poor population health lie in social policy rather than in health care-particularly an inadequate social insurance system that leads to many people being denied the income needed for health. [...]

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has become increasingly prevalent in healthcare delivery. While telemedicine holds promise to improve health equity, it may exacerbate pre-existing disparities for patients, including those with limited English proficiency (LEP). We systematically reviewed studies examining telemedicine utilization by LEP and English proficient (EP) patients in the United States. Four databases were searched, and 17 studies were included in this review. Among the seven [...]

Disinvested Black communities in the US exhibit the highest levels of skepticism about the trustworthiness of medical institutions due to historical and ongoing structural racism, which the COVID-19 pandemic further exposed. Black individuals experienced a COVID-19 mortality rate 3.60 times higher than their white counterparts. This study investigates the mediating role of medical distrust between health beliefs and vaccine uptake among residents living in disinvested Black communities in New [...]