The Political Determinants of Health

Daniel E. Dawes

Sep 2020 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by David Marantz

About this audiobook

Reduced life expectancy, worsening health outcomes, health inequity, and declining health care options-these are now realities for most Americans. However, in a country of more than 325 million people, addressing everyone's issues is challenging. How can we effect beneficial change for everyone so we all can thrive? What is the great equalizer? In this book, Daniel E. Dawes argues that political determinants of health create the social drivers-including poor environmental conditions, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of healthy food options-that affect all other dynamics of health. By understanding these determinants, their origins, and their impact on the equitable distribution of opportunities and resources, we will be better equipped to develop and implement actionable solutions to close the health gap. Dawes draws on his firsthand experience helping to shape major federal policies, including the Affordable Care Act, to describe the history of efforts to address the political determinants that have resulted in health inequities. Taking us further upstream to the underlying source of the causes of inequities, Dawes examines the political decisions that lead to our social conditions, makes the social determinants of health more accessible, and provides a playbook for how we can address them effectively.

About the author

Daniel E. Dawes is the director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine who has been at the forefront of recent major federal health policy negotiations in the United States. The cofounder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network, he is the author of 150 Years of ObamaCare.

David Marantz is an actor living in New York City. He has narrated eighty-five-plus titles since his first in 2011. He won an AudioFile Earphones Award for The Mind Club by Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray, and was nominated for an Audie Award for his contribution to the short story collection Rip-Off!

David R. Williams is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Williams is an internationally recognized social scientist focused on social influences on health.