“Jessica’s Story” is a video featured during NACHC’s  Policy and Issues Virtual Forum that deconstructs how policy, legal, and regulatory decisions can affect community health. “Jessica’s Story” is based on a composite of real experiences from people living in rural and urban areas whose health conditions were affected by what keynote speaker Daniel Dawes calls the political determinants of health.

Dawes, the Executive Director of government affairs and health policy at Morehouse School of Medicine, explains that political determinants of health are the result of a  “preceding legal, legislative, regulatory or other policy decision that resulted in that social determinant of health.”

Watch the video to learn more about how the political determinants of health can affect factors such as where we live, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the quality of water we drink, and the quality of our health care.