Improving Care for Vulnerable Populations

In the United States, vulnerable populations, including low-income people, the uninsured, and racial and ethnic minorities, have greater difficulty accessing health care, receive worse care overall, and experience poorer health outcomes than other groups. This features Pamela Riley, M.D., ., senior program officer for The Commonwealth Fund’s vulnerable populations program, outlining the need to improve care for these Americans and explaining how the Affordable Care Act will help to improve the care they receive and the health outcomes they experience. The health reform law’s Medicaid expansion, Riley says, will bring coverage to millions who need it and help sustain safety-net facilities.