25 Years after Passage of the ADA and 5 Years after ACA: Recognizing People with Disabilities as a Health Disparity Population

Recognition as a health disparity population can bring much needed attention and programmatic action to improve the health of people with disabilities, including potential eligibility for a number of federal health programs. This paper is based on an HHS-wide cross-agency effort to identify the status and programmatic possibilities for health of people with disabilities. We document how people with disabilities meet the three criteria of a health disparity population:  1) history of disadvantage, 2) poorer health outcomes at a population level, and 3) preventability of many poor health outcomes.  To demonstrate population differences, we provide data from national surveys on differences that can be preventable in health care access, health behaviors, disease and other health outcomes, and social determinants of health.   We provide five sets of recommendations to reduce these health disparities that include: 1) access to health care and human services, 2) data to drive policy and practice, 3) strengthened health and human services workforce capacity, 4) inclusion of people with disabilities in public health programs and services, and 5) emergency preparedness to protect health and save lives. Twenty-five years after passage of the ADA and five years after ACA, we know better than ever what needs to be done at multiple levels to improve the health and participation of people with disabilities.