Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-

being for all at all ages is important to building prosperous societies. However, despite great strides in improving people’s health and well-being in recent years, inequalities in health care access still persist.

More than six million children still die before their fifth birthday each year, and only half of all women in developing regions have access to the health care they need. Epidemics like HIV/AIDS thrive where fear and discrimination limit people’s ability to receive the services they need to live healthy and productive lives.

COVID-19 has clearly shown us that, for far too long, we have given little credence to the fact that our social circumstances greatly influence our ability to make healthy choices and therefore impact our inherent resilience. We, collectively, must grapple with improving the environments within which people live, especially those that have historically been most disadvantaged. The social determinants of health and our opportunities for healthy living vary tremendously across the nation. To be able to choose to live healthfully demands a more equitable standard, and that responsibility belongs to all of us.

Access to good health and well-being is a human right, and that is why the

Sustainable DevelopmentAgenda offers a new chance to ensure that everyone can access the highest standards of health and health care not just the wealthiest.

Sources - health.gov

                  - un.org