HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN TO ELEMINATE RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITIES IN HEALTH/OUT OF MANY, ONE (CERED/OMO)

In 1998, the President announced the Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Initiative to eliminate health disparities by 2010.  The Initiative focused on six areas: infant mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and child and adult immunization.  This initiative has been a catalyst for numerous activities that focus on minority health issues, including Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010 and Healthy People 2010.

One of the two primary goals of Healthy People 2010 is the elimination of minority health disparities.  In the past, Healthy People objectives utilized differential targets for racial and ethnic minority groups.  Healthy People 2010 requires better access for all Americans to the resources that impact health and explores new approaches to addressing the issue of health parity.   

To respond to these exciting opportunities and to ensure that communities of color could maximize these opportunities, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention (NLCATP), the National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA), the Native Hawaiian organization Papa Ola Lokahi (POL) and the Summit Health Institute for Research and Education (SHIRE), convened a national multicultural working summit among the communities of color to create an advocate for a united health agenda.   

History was made November 17 – 18, 2000 when more than eighty representatives from this nation’s communities of color came together for the first time to develop a cohesive and unified approach to improving their common health status and well being within the context of developing a national health Action Agenda.  From this, the conference report, Out of Many, One: A Multicultural Action Plan to Achieve Health Parity was developed.  This plan provides a strategic path for achieving health parity for communities of color within the next decade.  

The goal of this campaign is to empower each racial and ethnic community to provide leadership in working towards parity and equity in health for all Americans, and toward the attainment of optimal health for individuals and communities of color.  The underlying philosophy of the campaign is that empowerment of any racial and ethnic communities can be achieved by developing and implementing a united health agenda that focuses on common health issues while respecting the differences amongst communities of color.