Owning Health Equity Entrepreneurship, Capital, and Community-Owned Health

Authors

Thomas Williams, American University Washington College of LawFollow

Journal

Seton Hall Law Review

Volume

55

First Page

127

Last Page

204

Abstract

There is a long history of recognized health disparities affecting marginalized communities in the United States. These disparities have complicated and deep roots, but multiple factors can be controlled in the short term, such as access to high-quality medical care. Public and private institutions often use incentives to focus the efforts of private actors towards specified goals; incentives can also be calibrated to mitigate health disparities through a health equity entrepreneurial model.

To understand the possibilities and complications of this model of health equity-focused entrepreneurship, this Article uses the Black and American Indian maternal mortality and morbidity crises as a case study. In this context, the Article argues that midwifery-focused health equity entrepreneurship incentives and innovative funding models can augment provider ranks in maternal care deserts, improving health outcomes for Black and American Indian women. In part, the novel model strives to ensure that the groups most burdened by experiences related to health disparities are provided with opportunities to create and lead small firms addressing health equity in their communities, with the opportunity to govern those entities as they see fit. The novelty lies in its exploration of small firms’ role in eradicating health care disparities and inequities as a complement to public strategies. Public and private actors should contemplate this model in setting policy priorities and budgets.

This Article is novel in making the argument that small firms led by members of medically underserved populations must be centered to create appropriate and effective solutions to the problem of health disparities and in asserting that health care’s current focus on technological innovation and intervention must couple with reintegration of proven methods. Growing impediments to the creation and maintenance of firms led by members of these medically underserved populations, including health-focused entities, are based upon legal challenges to government programs focused on providing resources to marginalized entrepreneurs. This Article situates midwifery entrepreneurship as one example of the type of entrepreneurs to consider in the exploration of these ideas.

Recommended Citation

Thomas Williams, Owning Health Equity Entrepreneurship, Capital, and Community-Owned Health, 55 Seton Hall L. Rev. 127 (2024).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_lawrev/2310