While the harm of COVID-19 is tragic and impacts everyone, we, as business and community leaders, must do more to reduce the social conditions that contribute to these troubling and unacceptable inequities that have become magnified during this health crisis.

For more than 80 years, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has been committed to improving the health of all Michigan residents, and we have long worked to address health and health care disparities that impact minorities and vulnerable populations.

We’re broadening our efforts to include connecting members to physicians, providing implicit

bias education and supporting community-based organizations to address food insecurity, while partnering with the Health Endowment Fund and other foundations to enhance telehealth services, a key strategy for expanding access to care.

The funding covers testing supplies and operations costs for mobile units to test for COVID-19 at nursing homes, care facilities, churches and other sites throughout Detroit and the region.

And we’ll soon be announcing additional programs and partnerships because we are committed to ensuring, as we have for more than 80 years, that everyone has access to quality, affordable health care.