They can optimize benefits, address social issues, and expand access to care.
One of the starkest lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic has been the deep health inequities present in the United States and around the world. Nearly everywhere, groups that have been economically and socially marginalized experienced higher rates of Covid-19 and morbidity and mortality from infection. In the United States, before vaccines and effective treatments were widely available, Black and Latino people were three times more likely than white individuals to be infected with Covid-19 and twice as likely to die, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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