Determinants of health are the range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status. These factors vary widely and can include systems, strategies, and institutions that arise from the historical, political, and social contexts that place groups of people into socioeconomic categories and positions of power. Determinants of health can also be more specific, such as the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. There is a growing recognition of the law as a determinant of health, as law establishes the power of the state to regulate individual and group behavior, allocates funds to public expenditures that affect health, and articulates norms that express our society’s values and highest ideals, including how we prioritize public health. This Article argues that the determinants of health are largely responsible for inequalities in our health systems because many of the factors are not within an individual’s control. For example, whether an individual has access to mental health coverage depends largely on federal funding and programs, not on any factor within the individual’s control. Further, zoning laws can influence equality in housing, access to education, and even exacerbate social exclusion, which have all been proven to affect health outcomes. As a result, this Article proposes that understanding the law’s role as a determinant of health is the first step in bridging the gap and achieving health equity.