Bridging Our Divide:
Eliminating Health Inequities for a Healthier Nation

Across the United States, frustration with health care is reaching a boiling point: costs keep rising, outcomes fall short of expectations, and too many families feel one illness away from crisis. Yet even as there’s broad agreement that the system is failing, the country stays divided—often along personal and ideological differences—about what to do next. Some of that division is real and deeply rooted. But much of it is also amplified by public discourse that favors conflict over common ground. People are tired of both: tired of a health system that isn’t delivering, and tired of being pitted against each other when the stakes are shared.

Bridging Our Divide is a nationwide campaign from the Institute for Policy Solutions (IPS) at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing that aims to unite the country around a practical and urgent goal: eliminating health inequities as a way to repair the nation’s broken health system. Based on the IPS National Health Inequities Survey, the campaign:

Reframes inequities as a shared national challenge—Your health is my health.
Mobilizes targeted sectors to adopt and advance evidence-based solutions.
Grows a broad coalition committed to sustainable, equitable change.

Bridging Our Divide is a unifying, evidence-driven national effort to eliminate health inequities and build a healthier nation for all. By activating strategic sectors—from media to policymakers to communities—the campaign strengthens public understanding, accelerates adoption of proven solutions, and cultivates a broad coalition committed to sustainable change.

This work requires all of us. Stay connected. Get involved. Join IPS as we work with partners across the country to eliminate health inequities and create a healthier, more equitable nation.

Download & Share Campaign Assets

IPS national health inequities survey released

A new nationally representative survey from IPS reveals something rare today: real common ground. The 2025 IPS National Health Inequities Survey shows that people in the United States overwhelmingly want a fairer, more functional health system, and they support eliminating health inequities as a core solution for meaningful reform. Download the report to explore the key findings, subgroup insights, and what they signal for leaders across health care, policy, research, and communities ready to turn shared values into sustained action.

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full survey report

Bridging Our divide: campaign resources

Campaign Video

Campaign Launch Event Video

Strategic Sector Engagement

These sectors represent the interconnected forces that determine how health is communicated, delivered, governed, funded and experienced. When they move together, their combined influence becomes a catalyst for national progress toward eliminating health inequities.

IPS Actions:

Opinion pieces and Letters to the Editor
Bridging Our Divide Media TOOLKIT: fact sheets, infographics, collateral material
Deskside Series with reporters
June 10, 2026 media-focused Convening, Shaping the Narrative: Honoring Excellence in Health Inequity Journalism

IPS Actions:

Mass media communications explaining and promoting the elimination of health inequities as a fix for our broken health system
Bridging Our Divide Media Hub: fact sheets, infographics, collateral materials

IPS Actions:

Solution Story Series: Featured media stories about individuals, families, and communities who are working to overcome health inequities
Advocacy Tool Kit: Simple messaging, shareable graphics and practical outreach templates to help communities tell their stories, correct false narratives, and push decision-makers toward solutions that eliminate health inequities.

IPS Actions:

Bridging Our Divide Pledge Drive: engage professional associations and thought leaders to commit to the principles of the campaign and share resources through their networks
IPS Affiliates Program: Mobilize Affiliates across sectors to elevate real-world stories of the actions they are taking to eliminate health inequities
Conference Engagement: Market the campaign at public health conferences and meetings around the nation

IPS Actions:

Secure endorsements from federal, state and local policy makers supporting the campaign’s goals and tactics
Policy Briefings: Host meetings with decision-makers and staff to address the elimination of health inequities
Policy Toolkit: Produce policy briefs and adaptable policymaker opinion pieces that all support investment in the elimination of health inequities

IPS Actions:

Funder Engagement: Create donor-focused policy and “giving opportunity” briefs

IPS Actions:

Launch the IPS Training Institute to equip researchers, clinicians, and community partners with tools to design, test and scale evidence-based strategies to eliminate health inequities
N-SISS: Showcase and grow N-SISS as the exemplar program training the next generation of scientists focused on eliminating health inequities
Boost Visibility: promote/circulate IPS-aligned studies written up in high-impact journals through academic networks and social media