Kaiser Permanente was founded to provide care and coverage to the cross-section of American workers and their families at the Kaiser shipyards during World War II. We have been driven by a core belief that everyone, no matter who they are, deserves a fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

We work to understand the people, populations, and communities we serve. We respect differences, recognize the barriers people face, and take steps to help reduce gaps in care and outcomes.

Health equity is central to our mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and improve the health of our communities. It means treating every member with respect and focusing on addressing avoidable differences in health outcomes. In this way, we help improve clinical health for our entire Kaiser Permanente membership.

We’re committed to equal access and nondiscrimination.

Each member has different needs. When we understand those needs, we can build care experiences that earn trust and support better health.

Our model focuses on coordinated care, population health, and evidence-based practices. This approach helps us deliver high-quality health outcomes for all.

More equitable outcomes

Research published in 2025 shows that our members are 35% less likely to lose years of life compared to nonmembers in our communities.

The research also found that:

• Across all racial and ethnic groups, our members have lower mortality rates than nonmembers
• Differences in outcomes between groups are smaller within Kaiser Permanente

We deliver these results because of the clinical excellence of our physicians, and our early detection of disease, coordinated care, and ongoing tracking of patient outcomes and care gaps.

Finding and addressing avoidable differences in health

We have extensive data on our members’ health, thanks to our large electronic health record system.

We analyze our care outcomes for different groups of patients based on factors like age and location. This helps us see where gaps exist, what works well, and where we can improve.

Our teams use this information to:

• Examine differences in care quality and outcomes
• Compare performance across medical centers and regions
• Design targeted ways to help reduce avoidable care gaps between groups

Centralized quality dashboards allow our clinicians and leaders to view the same measures across populations. This shared view helps us reduce unwarranted differences in health outcomes for our members.

Clear standards for care

We have standards that guide how we deliver care and reduce differences between groups. We reaffirmed these standards in 2025.

• All programs must be open to all eligible members.
• Programs tailored to specific populations must be based on data and evidence.
• Efforts to address differences in health must be grounded in population health principles and must not exclude any groups.

This approach helps ensure consistency across the organization.

We also created shared guidance for population health and health equity work. This guidance gives teams clear definitions and expectations, so they design, measure, and communicate programs in the same way — and stay accountable for results.