The Medicare Rights Center (Medicare Rights) appreciates this opportunity to comment on the Methods and Leading Practices for Advancing Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through Government request for information (RFI). Medicare Rights is a national, nonprofit organization that works to ensure access to affordable health care for older adults and people with disabilities through counseling and advocacy, educational programs, and public policy initiatives. Each year, Medicare Rights provides services and resources to nearly three million people with Medicare, family caregivers, and professionals.
The need to address equity has never been clearer. The COVID-19 pandemic, entrenched economic exploitation, rising income inequality, and violent and systemic racism must be a call to action to build new pathways to equity and justice. We are glad to see this RFI’s focus on ways to see, assess, and redress inequities throughout our governmental systems.
Medicare has aided the country before as we attempted to move past the horrors of Jim Crow and other segregation and racial and ethnic barriers.1 But disparities persist, and more must be done to improve access to health care and coverage, build well-being, support dignity, and enhance economic stability for all.
