Story highlights The Affordable Care Act has provided life-saving preventive and diagnostic screenings

Insurance coverage disparity is striking, especially for women battling breast cancer

Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice is president and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and an expert on women's health equity.

(CNN) The study released this week by the American Cancer Society highlighted the significant role health insurance plays in the widening chasm of disparities in breast cancer mortality.

Progress on this front has been made. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has resulted in the lowest uninsured rate ever recorded in our nation's history: 8.8% down from 16% in 2009 before the ACA was signed into law, according to the Council for Economic Advisers and National Center for Health Statistics. It has provided life-saving preventive and diagnostic screenings, access to higher quality care and appropriate treatments, as well as increased opportunities for diverse women to participate in clinical trials.

As we recognize National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this month and continue the national debate over health reform, it is worth noting the impact that a lack of health insurance coverage has on women reaching their optimal level of health or health equity.

I began my medical career as an obstetrics and gynecology resident in the late 1980s at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital. Emergency rooms in hospitals such as Grady were a last resort for uninsured patients who, in many cases, struggled with undiagnosed cancer, high-risk pregnancies, heart disease, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.

The disparities in coverage and access to quality care for patients whose cards were stacked against them were striking, especially for women battling breast cancer, which is the most common cancer among women in the United States and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths.

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