middle aged black female doctor

Health & Health Care

Efforts to enhance health care delivery systems and improve population health inevitably raise ethical issues. As health care costs rise worldwide, governments debate whether—and how—they can make health care more affordable while also improving its quality and safety. At the same time, we know that health care accounts for only a small proportion of health outcomes. Race, as well as social and economic factors, are far more consequential. The Hastings Center’s projects in this wide-ranging focus area address health disparities; examine oversight of health care systems; and analyze how best to balance costs and benefits, safety and risks, competing notions of fairness, and individual rights versus community well-being.