How Medical Systems Can Help People Vote

Hospitals and community health centers are important parts of the community. Many of the people we treat at our clinics are young, disabled, low income and/or people of color. Because policy at all levels of government shapes our health, we need to change the way we serve people who are disengaged in democracy.

A growing number of U.S. health care providers are making voter engagement a regular part of clinical care. More than 300 institutions and 30,000 providers have added nonpartisan civic health to their list of ways to care for the whole person. Making ballots more available can help people better advocate for their health needs, not just in voting for people who campaign on health- related issues such as clean air, better access to health care, and women's or children's health, but also for the social determinants of health. Up to 80 percent of health outcomes can be attributed to the social determinants.

Federal legislation gives health systems the power to address these inequalities. The National Voter registration act of 1993 supports nonprofits in voter registration.

Alta Med is an example. Altamed staff and people from local civic engagement organizations reached more than 220,000 new and low-propensity Latino voters within a five-mile radius of all their clinic sites in the run-up to the primaries in California in the year 2000. More than 30,000 black and Latino voters were contacted as part of the Alta Med Get Out the Vote campaign. An 8 percent increase in voter turnou t was achieved by every 1 percent of voters contacted by Altamed.

Health care providers are talking about voting in their practices. Vot-ER and other nonprofits have helped professionals at more than 700 hospitals register to vote. They don't endorse a political party, policy or candidate. The voter has the power to choose who they want to represent them and advocate for their health.

Health care-based efforts to increase voter turnout were spurred by the COVID Pandemic. In August 2020, nearly 100 health and democracy partners celebrated the first Civic HealthMonth to ensure that people could access voting resources and cast their votes safely. The National Medical Association, a professional organization that represents physicians of African descent, is one of more than 300 partners in the coalition. More than 80 medical schools participated in the healthy democracy campaign.

Vot-ER reported that more than 47,000 people used the organization's tools to register to vote in 2020. 84 percent of people who completed the registration process did so well, and 85 percent voted in the general election. Vot-ER was used by more people of color and young people to register to vote.

Major voices in health care are taking action Voting as a social determinant of health was affirmed by the American Medical Association in June. The framework used to measure and improve health outcomes was re-established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Teaching hospitals and medical schools were encouraged to support voter access by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

One of the most important ways to improve health is to make sure people vote, at a time when U.S. life expectancy has hit the largest two-year decline in nearly a century. Our health is on the ballot no matter who is in office. To encourage our colleagues and patients to advocate for themselves and to vote like our health depends on it, we need to continue taking action that underscores voting and health as part of the same conversation.

The views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those ofScientific American.