Finally, efforts to reduce social inequalities in health in the U.S. must be combined with efforts to improve the health of all social groups. Throughout this paper, whites and high SES groups have been the standard of comparison for the health of more socially vulnerable groups. Recent reports from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America show that whites in the U.S. and the college-educated in almost every state, fall below an achievable national benchmark of both child178 and adult health.179 Thus, even the most advantaged residents of the U.S. have less than optimal health, with even more dramatic shortfalls for many racial minorities and low SES groups. Thus, we need a new national commitment to improve the health of all that would also give specific emphasis to improving the health of the most vulnerable, more rapidly than that of the overall population, so that social inequalities in health can ultimately be eliminated.
