The Saturday, 4 August 2007 New Orleans Advocate reported that while the city is still facing the same significant healthcare needs and large racial disparities in health that existed prior to 2005's Hurricane Katrina, the storms also had a leveling affect across many health access and utilization measures, creating new access to care barriers for many still living in the region.

The basis for the article is the recently released report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, "Health Challenges for the People of New Orleans," that acknowledged that Katrina has made life more difficult for everyone in the area.

The Kaiser report is the result of a door-to-door survey of 1,500 residents in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines parishes in Fall 2006.?