People with disabilities need universal access to high quality, affordable health care. While progress is there, there is more work to improve health care for people with disabilities. We must continue our fight to protect and expand access to health care.

For decades, people with disabilities have suffered in our nation’s healthcare system. People with disabilities face discrimination and barriers to accessing affordable and quality health care. People with disabilities are also more likely to live in poverty and cannot afford cost sharing. Even when services are available in a community, many people with disabilities lack adequate public or private insurance to pay for them.

With the need for enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is significant progress towards accomplishing our nation’s goal of universal access to high quality, affordable healthcare for all people with disabilities. The ACA includes historic coverage expansions; nondiscrimination and health insurance reforms; strengthened prevention provisions; numerous enhancements to Medicare and Medicaid; and other provisions that significantly benefit people with disabilities.

We support access to affordable, comprehensive public and private health insurance. We work to broaden access to healthcare coverage in several ways.

According to the Center for Disease Control, adults with disabilities have a 58% higher rate of obesity than adults without. Individuals with disabilities (PWDs) face challenges related to eating healthy, maintaining weight, and being physically active. People with disabilities also experience three times the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer as compared to the general population.