The Massachusetts state legislature formed a task force to examine and make recommendations around improving health equity in the Commonwealth. After more than 10 months, the task force's final report was released on Thursday. Chief among its recommendations is the formation of a cabinet-level Secretary of Equity position, as well as better data tracking and an "equity-in-all-policies" approach to governance. Health Equity Task Force Co-Chair Michael Curry, also the CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, spoke with Arun Rath on GBH’s All Things Considered to discuss next steps for the state. The following transcript has been edited for clarity.
Arun Rath: Remind us what the task force was charged with accomplishing when it was established.
Michael Curry: So last year, the legislature — credit to Speaker [Ron] Mariano and Senate President [Karen] Spilka — organized a Health Equity Task Force, and they invited some of us who are external to the legislature to participate in — and in my case, to help lead — that task force, along with Dr. [Assaad] Sayah from the Cambridge Health Alliance. And we were charged with a few very clear things in the midst of COVID-19. One was improving safety for populations at increased risk for COVID-19, removing barriers and increasing access to quality and equitable health care — which is a pretty broad goal, but a challenge for that task force; increasing access to personal protective equipment, medical supplies and COVID-19 testing; providing informational materials to underserved and underrepresented populations; and any other factors deemed relevant by the task force to address health disparities for underserved and underrepresented community, and further study of the impacts of disparities. Broad goal, some specific. But timely.
Rath: Right. A big job. And let's dig into some of the recommendations laid out in today's report. Maybe the biggest one, you're recommending the establishment of a new cabinet-level office on Beacon Hill, a secretary of equity. Tell us about what's being envisioned there.
Curry: Yes. You can go back several years, maybe a decade or so, there was a campaign for an Office of Health Equity. But this is a cabinet-level executive office in this proposal, a secretary of equity. And that person would be charged with creating a three- to five-year strategic plan and data dashboards in collaboration with stakeholders and the various branches of government. That's not something we have in place today. In fact, that would be an example for the rest of the country. That entity and that person would also be accountable for creating equity offices for each secretary. So it is a tremendous opportunity for Massachusetts to embrace that particular recommendation, and the members of the task force are excited about the many proposals, but that being top among them.
Rath: And to make that happen, this the secretary of equity position, who do you need to get support from, in terms of people on Beacon Hill? How do you establish this and make it happen?
Curry: Well, credit again to the legislature, because this was a joint task force of both legislators and people that were experts in the field. And we had a nice group of senators and representatives sent there to the task force with the support of their leadership. We had 17-plus times that we met. We had three public hearings, it was informed by advocates and activists across the state, including other members of the legislature that were not in the task force. So this goes before the legislature.
We know that they're about to receive significant amounts of relief funding through ARPA [the American Rescue Plan Act]. What that means is they can now deploy some of those funds to a health equity blueprint, and they could advance those. As we say, the train is leaving the station. So there's the budget, there's supplemental budgets, there could be a health equity bill. Whatever vehicle the legislature deems appropriate, they can put a package together that hopefully will incorporate much, if not all, of the recommendations in this report.
Rath: It's interesting how this position is secretary of equity, not necessarily secretary of health equity. And another recommendation from your task force talks about an "equity-in-all-policies" approach. Could you talk about those in tandem?
Curry: It's so interesting. In the past year, with the murder of George Floyd a little over a year ago, in the wake of the outbreak of this pandemic, the consciousness of the country and the consciousness of residents in Massachusetts has been raised tremendously around equity. What is it? What does it look like? What does it not look like? How intentional we have to be with inclusion — that, quite frankly, our history is full of efforts that that excluded people, particularly as we're talking about African Americans, or people with disabilities, or women or LGBTQ communities. And that we have to be equally as intentional on including them.
That takes not just saying, "Okay, anything we do, we'll have an equity approach." No, it takes actually implementing policies and procedures, and putting people in the right place to produce equity. And I think that's what this report really speaks to, an "equity-in-all-policies" practice to evaluate the impact of state policies and programs, beginning with an immediate equity analysis plan for the expenditure of those American Rescue Plan funds. And I think that is a great start. I think there's some traction with Governor [Charlie] Baker and Secretary [Marylou] Sudders, as well as House and Senate leadership. So I'm excited about where this could go.
Rath: Tell us a bit about that in more detail, maybe a preview of the analysis of those funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. What are you going to be looking at in particular to make sure those funds address?
Curry: We always say — as a person who's been doing policy work most of my adult life, I say, budgets reflect the priorities. They reflect the urgency of the moment, and oftentimes, when you don't have people in the room who are diverse, who represent the various interests of the Commonwealth, then the budget doesn't reflect their interest and the things that are most urgent to them. So, it's a great time when in the wake of this pandemic, in the passage of American Rescue Plan Act, there are significant dollars — in the millions — coming to Massachusetts that we can now figure out how to deploy those dollars. And they should be deployed in a way that speaks to those Black, Latinx, people of the disability community that have been looking for resources to address these issues.
How do you put resources in the hands of community organizations like MIRA, the immigrant rights activist organization, or Mass. Public Health Association, or the disability rights and advocacy community that will address what we're seeing in COVID-19, which are disparate outcomes from this disease? And none of that should have been a surprise because vulnerable people in the midst of a public health emergency are the most likely to be sick and die and be hospitalized. So the dollars need to be deployed in a way that will eliminate the disparity that exists between the haves and have-nots, those that are experiencing systemic racism in this state. And I think the dollars can be deployed and put in the hands of people who can do something about it.
Rath: Well, Michael, I think our next conversation is going to be about that analysis and talking all that through in detail, because that sounds really fascinating and important. Michael, it's always good to to talk with you, and it's really great to talk with you fresh off of this off of this report and recommendations. Thank you.
Curry: Absolutely. Hot off the press, so I appreciate you providing us some time to talk about it.
Rath: That's Michael Curry, CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and co-chair of the State Legislature’s Health Equity Task Force. This is All Things Considered.
