Race, Disability and the Promotion of Health Equity

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) provides unique opportunities for public health practitioners to reduce disparities in health care access and health outcomes for persons of color who have disabilities. Current efforts to eliminate health disparities too often exclude persons with disabilities as a demographic. As a result, health disparities impacting persons of color with disabilities are all but ignored. This presentation will look at how state and community level entities can begin taking steps to proactively respond to the PPACA and reduce health disparities impacting persons of color with disabilities. It will share current efforts taking place in Massachusetts to better understand and incorporate the healthcare needs of this population into its work to eliminate health disparities. It will provide empirical evidence of disparity in health access and health outcomes for persons of color with disabilities.

Using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from Massachusetts, this presentation will look at gaps in data collection and analysis that if remedied can provide better understanding of the connection between race, disability and health indicators such as obesity, tobacco use, isolation etc. and secondary disabilities. Practical examples of collaborations between disability advocates, traditional public health advocates and state agencies to eliminate health disparities will be given. These include efforts by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Disparities Action Network, Health Care for All and Disability Policy Consortium. Challenges, opportunities, points of synergy and divergence will be discussed along with practicability in areas including CLAS standards, policy formulation and data collection.