The overall Latino uninsured rate dropped from 36 percent to 23 percent less than one year after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces opened for enrollment, according to the Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey.
Highlights from the survey, conducted April 9 to June 2, 2014, are shown below.
1. For young Latino adults ages 19 to 34, the uninsured rate was nearly cut in half from 43 percent in 2013 to 23 percent in 2014.
2. Latinos with the lowest incomes (138 percent of the federal poverty level: $15,856 for an individual and $32,499 for a family of four) made the greatest gains in health coverage, improving from 46 percent uninsured in 2013 to 28 percent uninsured in 2014.
3. Awareness of the marketplaces increased but still lags among Latinos who primarily speak Spanish. Awareness increased from 29 percent in 2013 to 50 percent in 2014 among all Latino adults ages 19 to 64. Latinos who were primarily English speakers showed an increase in awareness from 29 percent in 2013 to 65 percent in 2014, and those who were primarily Spanish speakers showed an increase from 28 percent in 2013 to 35 percent in 2014.
4. According to the Commonwealth Fund, poor Latinos living in states that had not expanded their Medicaid program at the time the survey was conducted remained statistically unchanged at 33 percent. These states contain almost 20 million Latinos, most of whom reside in Texas and Florida.