Strengthening Medicare’s Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Summary

Medicare Brief No. 16 ~ October 2006

This brief provides a handy, four-page summary of the report of NASI's Study Panel on Medicare and Disparities.

Disparities in health care for racial and ethnic minorities and low-income persons pose a pressing national problem. The study panel concludes that Medicare is obligated to take the lead in reducing disparities—both for its beneficiaries and throughout the health system—and makes 17 recommendations to those who set policy for and administer the Medicare program.