JUAN FERNANDO LOPERA doesn’t minimize the immense challenges facing the Health Equity Compact, a group of 50 Black and Latinx Massachusetts health care leaders who joined together last year to address inequities in health care.

“We talked a lot about are we trying to boil the ocean and the reality is, yes, we need to boil the ocean in order to address the deeply rooted systemic disparities in health care,” said Lopera, the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health.

Boiling the ocean, of course, is an impossible task, but the compact is moving ahead. The group announced its formation last year, filed legislation this year, and is spreading the word about its ambitious agenda.

“We know that the work isn’t easy. We know we have centuries of structural injustice to unwind,” said Myechia Minter-Jordan, the president and CEO of CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. 

Minter-Jordan and Lopera, key members of the Health Equity Compact, joined John McDonough of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute on a Health or Consequences edition of The Codcast.

 The legislation the group filed prioritizes health equity in state government, better data gathering, and an overall focus on improving access to care and the quality of care. It calls for a greater focus on health inequity at the Health Policy Commission. And a report is in the works with Blue Cross Blue Shield on the cost to society of health care inequity.

 A section of the proposed legislation would require the state to provide health insurance to undocumented immigrants. McDonough said California and New Mexico have gone that route using state funds, but he described it as “kind of a third-rail issue.”

 It’s a personal issue for Lopera, who came to this country as a young undocumented immigrant from Colombia. “Health care did not work for my family,” he said.

 Lopera said providing health insurance to undocumented immigrants is common sense, pointing out that many immigrants without health insurance end up sick and treated more expensively in emergency rooms. 

 “It is something that we need to address. We need to pay for it one way or another,” he said. “We think it is a human right to provide health insurance.”

 He is hopeful for passage of the provision in the wake of the Legislature’s approval last session of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. He said the compact is researching what it would cost to provide health insurance to undocumented immigrants now.

 Asked if the legislation is the end goal of the Health Equity Compact, both Minter-Jordan and Lopera said no.

 “Our endgame, quite frankly, was not legislation,” said Lopera, pointing out that the members of the Health Equity Compact may accomplish the most change by advocating within their own individual organizations.

 “This work is never going to be something that’s short-term,” said Minter-Jordan. “We’re in this for the long haul.”