In this moment, when hospitals face unprecedented attacks and criticism, it is worth remembering that nearly everyone starts life as a patient and will likely end as a patient in the system of care. What counts most is the technical skill, clinical acumen, compassion, and dedication of those who stand on the front line of care: the dedicated heroes and sheroes, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and administrators whose careers are dedicated to health and healing.
As a patient, it is both humbling and an honor to recognize those who have cared for me and my loved ones. In moments of health care need, rhetoric and debate fade away. What endures is trust — trust that hospitals and health care professionals will be there to save lives, deliver treatment, provide medicine and restore hope.
Our health care system is imperfect, yet even in light of its imperfections, we must preserve access pathways so individuals in every community can receive the care they need and deserve. Health justice reminds us that we are part of a broader movement to eliminate inequities by addressing the structural, systemic and social drivers of health that disproportionately harm historically medically marginalized communities.
Understanding health justice empowers us to understand the broader conditions — such as housing, education, environment, employment and discrimination — that shape health outcomes. At its core, health justice recognizes health as a human right and calls for collective action, policy change, data disaggregation, and redistribution of resources to dismantle barriers rooted in racism, classism, ableism, sexism and other forms of oppression.
Too often, the public conversation turns to vilifying the very institutions that make healing possible. Yet the reality is clear: hospitals — large and small, urban and rural — open their doors to all, ensuring that communities are not left without care. Behind those doors are health care workers who labor day and night to make life-saving interventions not just aspirational, but available.
That is why gratitude must be matched by action. As lawmakers return to Washington, they must protect the policies that allow hospitals to continue this mission. Extending enhanced premium tax credits will help families maintain access to affordable coverage. Preserving the safety net is essential for ensuring hospitals can provide medicines, treatments and community programs that patients depend on.
Without these lifelines, access to emergency care, chronic disease treatment, mental health care, transportation, and translation services will be jeopardized.
As we reflect in the days following Labor Day — a holiday meant to honor the contributions of workers across America — let us direct our deepest gratitude to the health care workforce. These individuals do more than provide medical services. They safeguard dignity, protect health and extend life itself.
At a time when so much divides us, celebrating our hospitals and the people who staff them is one way to remember what unites us: the universal need for health care, compassion and healing.
Courtney Lang, J.D., is the founder of Langco + Partners and a board director at Trinity Health.