Health Disparities (2)

Question 1

What are health and health care disparities?

Answer 1

Differences in health and health care between groups that are closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage

Disparities occur across many dimensions:

• race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age
• location, gender,
• disability status
• sexual orientation.

Question 2

Why do health and health care disparities matter?

Answer 2

• affect the groups facing disparities and limit overall gains in quality of care
• result in unnecessary costs
• more important as the population becomes more diverse
• people of color will account for over half (52%) of the population in 2050.

Question 3

What is the current status of disparities?

Answer 3

• Affordable Care Act (ACA) led to large coverage gains
• some groups remain at higher risk of being uninsured, lacking access to care, and experiencing worse health outcomes
• As of 2018, Hispanics are two and a half times more likely to be uninsured than Whites (19.0% vs. 7.5%)
• individuals with incomes below poverty are four times as likely to lack coverage as those with incomes at 400% of the federal poverty level or above (17.3% vs. 4.3%).

Question 4

What are key initiatives to address disparities?

Answer 4

• ACA’s coverage expansions and funding for community health centers increased access to coverage and care for many groups facing disparities
• other provisions explicitly focused on reducing disparities.

At the federal level,
* the Department of Health and Human Services is engaged in a range of actions to implement its 2011 action plan to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities
* States, local communities, private organizations, and providers also are engaged in efforts to reduce health disparities, which increasingly encompass a focus on social factors influencing health.

Question 5

What are current challenges to addressing disparities?

Answer 5

• Recent policy changes and current priorities may lead to coverage declines moving forward

Beyond coverage, there are an array of other challenges to addressing disparities, including:

• limited capacity to address social determinants of health
• declines in funding for prevention and public health and health care workforce initiatives
• gaps in data to measure and understand disparities.