Sondra Rothwell and Dawn Warner attended the legislative fly-in in March 2024 with the Autoimmune Association.
Click to join forces with he Autoimmune Association to support the HELP COPAY ACT. In April 2025 Sondra Rothwell and Dawn Warner participated in a Capitol Hill fly-in with the Rare Disease Diversity Coalition.
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
How Life Circumstances Affect Your Health
Your health is shaped by more than doctor visits and medications.
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) are the everyday conditions in which people live, work, learn, and age that influence health and quality of life.
These factors can affect:
✔ How quickly you receive a diagnosis
✔ How well treatments work
✔ Your ability to manage a chronic illness
✔ Your stress levels
✔ Your long-term health
Public health research shows that social and environmental factors play a major role in health outcomes — often as much as or more than medical care alone.
What Are Social Determinants of Health?
Social Determinants of Health include:
1. Financial Stability
Your financial situation can affect your health in many ways.
Examples include:
How this affects health:
People may delay treatment or skip medications when costs are too high.
2. Education and Health Knowledge
Understanding health information helps people make informed decisions.
Examples include:
How this affects health:
Low health literacy can make it harder to manage chronic illness.
3. Access to Healthcare
Access to medical care varies widely.
Examples include:
How this affects health:
Limited access can lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment.
4. Neighborhood and Environment
Where you live affects your health every day.
Examples include:
How this affects health:
Environmental exposures can worsen chronic illness.
5. Social Support and Community
Support from others plays a major role in health.
Examples include:
How this affects health:
Strong social support improves physical and mental health.
Examples of SDOH Challenges
Many people experience challenges that affect their health.
These may include:
These challenges are common and not a personal failure. They are real factors that healthcare systems and communities must address.
Why Social Determinants of Health Matter for Chronic Illness
People living with chronic conditions are often affected more strongly by SDOH.
For example:
Understanding these factors helps patients and healthcare providers work together to improve health.
What Patients Can Do
While some factors are outside your control, there are
steps that may help:
Build Your Support Network
Use Community Resources
Look for:
Speak Up About Barriers
Tell your healthcare provider if you:
Healthcare providers can often connect you with resources as well.
Bias & Discrimination
Transportation
Financial
Language & Cultural
Lack of Insurance
Provider Shortage
Health Literacy
Stigma & Social Determinates of Health
Lack of Technology
Systemic Issues (hours, wait time for appointment)
This bill requires a group health plan to establish an exception to medication step-therapy protocol in specified cases. A medication step-therapy (or fail first) protocol establishes a specific sequence in which prescription drugs are covered by a group health plan or a health insurance issuer.
A request for such an exception to the protocol must be granted if:
(1) An otherwise required treatment has been ineffective.
(2) The treatment is expected to be ineffective and delaying effective treatment would lead to irreversible consequences.
(3) The treatment will cause or is likely to cause an adverse reaction to the individual.
(4) The treatment is expected to prevent you from performing daily activities (ADL) or occupational responsibilities.
(5) You are stable on your current prescription drugs already selected by your provider and the drug has been covered by your previous or current insurance plan.
(6) There are other circumstances as determined by the Employee Benefits Security Administration.
** Source: Congress.gov
The Act will help reduce patient out-of-pocket expenses by requiring insurance plans to include the copay assistance coupons and other copay assistance programs towards your deductible. This means access to more care and lower cost sharing obligations. Contact your state and house representative and ask for their support!
Our Congressional ask was to FULLY fund the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research through the National Institutes of Health. This allows all of the autoimmune diseases to benefit from the research. Autoimmune diseases are costly to treat. A coordinated effort is required to do the research and make the discoveries that will impact autoimmune diseases as a class. This is already being done for cancer and infections, each of which has a dedicated institute.