When President Barack Obama met with the nation's governors last month and offered to allow states to establish their own plans to reform health care in place of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, he insisted that states meet or exceed the same goals established in the health overhaul to expand insurance coverage, improve the quality of care and contain rapidly escalating healthcare costs.
The president might also insist that states show progress toward eliminating health inequities -- differences in the opportunity to have good health that exist between rich and poor Americans, and whites relative to most non-whites.
These health inequities exist literally from the cradle to the grave, in the form of higher rates of infant mortality; disease and disability; and earlier death for many people of color and the poor relative to whites and higher-income groups.
Read more at Kaiser Health News.
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