Strategic Goal 1: Protect and Strengthen Equitable Access to High Quality and Affordable Healthcare

Strategic Objective 1.1: Increase choice, affordability, and enrollment in high-quality healthcare coverage

Strategic Objective 1.2: Reduce costs, improve quality of healthcare services, and ensure access to safe medical devices and drugs

Strategic Objective 1.3: Expand equitable access to comprehensive, community-based, innovative, and culturally-competent healthcare services while addressing social determinants of health

Strategic Objective 1.4: Drive the integration of behavioral health into the healthcare system to strengthen and expand access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment and recovery services for individuals and families

Strategic Objective 1.5: Bolster the health workforce to ensure delivery of quality services and care

HHS works to protect and strengthen equitable access to high quality and affordable healthcare.  Increasing choice, affordability and enrollment in high-quality healthcare coverage is a focus of the Department’s efforts in addition to reducing costs, improving quality of healthcare services, and ensuring access to safe medical devices and drugs.  HHS also works to expand equitable access to comprehensive, community-based, innovative, and culturally- and linguistically-appropriate healthcare services while addressing social determinants of health.  The Department is driving the integration of behavioral health into the healthcare system to strengthen and expand access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment and recovery services for individuals and families.  HHS also bolsters the health workforce to ensure delivery of quality services and care. 

In the context of HHS, this Strategic Plan adopts the definition of underserved communities listed in Executive Order 13985: Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government to refer to “populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life”; this definition includes individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.  Individuals may belong to more than one underserved community and face intersecting barriers.  This definition applies to the terms underserved communities and underserved populations throughout this Strategic Plan.

Related Executive Orders (EO) and White House Action Plans, Directives, and Memoranda:

Related Legislation:

Within HHS, the following divisions are working to achieve Strategic Goal 1: Administration for Community Living (ACL), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Indian Health Service (IHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Office of Global Affairs (OGA), Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

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Content created by Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
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