Readout of the Inaugural White House Minority Health Forum

Yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy hosted its inaugural White House Minority Health Forum to recognize National Minority Health Month and to highlight progress, discuss challenges, and identify actions that the federal government and private sector can take to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities for racial and ethnic minority communities across the country.

From Day One, President Biden has prioritized improving equity and directed a whole-of-government agenda that includes strengthening community-based health care ecosystems and partnerships, addressing systemic inequities across social determinants of health, and expanding access to high-quality and affordable health care for everyone. The historic Inflation Reduction Act is lowering health care costs, including prescription drug costs, and the Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to expanding health insurance coverage for low-income and underserved communities.

This forum brought together health leaders, advocates, physicians, and researchers to understand and advance bold new efforts to reduce health disparities and improve the health of racial and ethnic minority communities through health promotion, prevention, early detection, effective treatment, and care.

Welcoming participants to the White House, Arati Prabhakar, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science & Technology Policy, delivered a call to action to improve health outcomes for communities nationwide. “Health outcomes in America are simply unacceptable… and that is especially true in our ethnic minority communities and our racial minority communities,” she said. “There is a lot more work to be done, but I can’t tell you how much hope and how much courage it gives me to see that progress is possible when we move on this work.”  

The program concluded with remarks from Secretary Xavier Becerra of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Some of the greatest discoveries, some of the proudest moments for America are going to come because we included people who have a story to tell that’s going to knock your socks off,” he said. “The President and Vice President have made it an enduring commitment that we serve all Americans and that we serve them with the people who look like them.”

At the forum, working sessions drove new ideas, actions, and collaborations aimed at identifying new cross sector actions to strengthen health outcomes and reduce health disparities on topics including:

• Addressing cancer disparities from screening to survivorship
• Public health, access to care, and social drivers of health
• Community-driven solutions to structural and environmental drivers of disparities
• Equity in innovation and research

###