Shared Language for Health Equity—Words Are Not Enough

Health inequities remain pervasive and entrenched, and they impact nearly all communities in the United States.1,2 While some progress, albeit limited, has been made in advancing health equity over the past 2 to 3 decades, 3 there have also been notable recent setbacks.4 Meanwhile, political discourse regarding issues salient to achieving health equity has become more charged, and the national political landscape has become increasingly polarized.5 In the face of all of this, many individuals working in the health equity and public health spheres have probably pondered some version of the following: How can we come together around the values that we share as US residents to improve the nation's health and advance health equity?Or, perhaps even more pessimistically: Are there values or principles that unite us as US residents that we can rally around in support of public health and health equity?It is within this context that Wang and colleagues, 6 elsewhere in JAMA Network Open, address a salient question: How do language and framing influence public receptiveness to health equity +