For Generations to Come: Georgetown Campaign Blog

We had a chance to ask some of the panelists questions that students had submitted for “Think About It: An Afternoon of Ideas.”

“What is the key to healthcare equality?”

“At the most basic level, we need to make available uniformly high-quality healthcare access, and there’s an educational component to that. We have the responsibility to provide culturally sensitive information and that after [people] are treated, we have to ensure that they’re part of the healthcare continuum, so we need a sustainable healthcare plan. Beginning in K-12, informing wellness and averting disease is part of our education. Most importantly, we ideally have universal knowledge about healthcare–we need familiarity with learning both how the system works and individual wellness. Otherwise, we have a situation where people–even if everything is available–wouldn’t know how to enter the healthcare system. We the society should shoulder the burden of spreading knowledge, and we need multiple tailored messages because we live in a diverse society.”

Dr. Howard Federoff
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences, 
Executive Dean of Georgetown University School of Medicine