Reports Highlight Health Care Reform’s Potential Impact in Reducing Health Disparities

Reports Highlight Health Care Reform’s Potential Impact in Reducing Health Disparities: This week began and ended with legal challenges to the constitutionality of the provision in the nation’s new health care reform law that would require individuals to carry health insurance. On Monday, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the mandate is unconstitutional; on Thursday, a federal judge in Florida began hearing arguments.

Also on Thursday, the Washington-based Center for American Progress released two reports that explore the Affordable Care Act’s impact on racial and ethnic minorities who suffer from chronic illnesses and how the legislation can improve efforts to address gaps in the data that measure health care disparities.

“There has been considerable debate this week around efforts to dismantle health care reform,” said the reports’ author, Dr. Lesley Russell, a senior fellow at the think tank, during a conference call with reporters.