RAGEISM, Rulemaking and the Quest for Health Equity: Making Policy Work for ALL People and their Environments

Focused on inequalities in aging, health, and wealth, this talk explores why equitable opportunities to thrive over a lifetime even within supposedly advanced countries like the United States of America remain elusive for too many. Using a cross-disciplinary theoretical approach that draws upon Douglasian Cultural Theory, Life Course Theory, and the Political Determinants of Health this talk explores how political actors and their institutions create health disparities that undermine the quality and length of life among groups in society. It maintains that reversing health disparities and achieving equitable health outcomes across groups can only be realized by instituting equity-focused political and policy reforms that address how societall biases are conveyed through political systems.