Gap closed: the Affordable Care Act's impact on Asian Americans' health coverage
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Data brief (Commonwealth Fund)
- Author(s):
- Gunja, Munira Z., author Baumgartner, Jesse C., author Shah, Arnav, author Radley, David C., author Collins, Sara R., author
- Contributor(s):
- Commonwealth Fund, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [New York, N.Y.] : The Commonwealth Fund, July 2020
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Asian Americans -- statistics & numerical data Insurance Coverage -- statistics & numerical data United States United States.
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Eliminating racial inequities in insurance coverage was one of the main goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Prior to the law, people of color were uninsured at significantly higher rates than whites. Recent research has indicated that these gaps have narrowed, although remaining disparities within the Black, Latino, Native American/Alaska Native communities have been starkly exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the United States. Surveys and research analyses often group Asian Americans with other races or ethnicities, limiting what we know about the way this group experiences health care. Asian Americans are composed of more than 50 distinct ethnicities with significant socioeconomic diversity. Chinese, Indian, and Filipino Americans are the three largest groups. After implementation of the ACA, the uninsured rate declined among all races and ethnicities through 2016. Prior research has reported on the reduction and elimination of coverage disparities between Asian American and white adults, including significant gains among the lower-income population. In this brief, we build on those previous findings by extending the analysis of different Asian American ethnicities through 2018 and exploring the reduction in disparities by income, insurance type, and Medicaid expansion. Specifically, we use two-year rolling averages to review: (1) Insurance coverage rates for Asian Americans compared to other races and ethnicities, as well as rates for specific Asian American ethnicities and subpopulations. (2) Coverage trends among different income groups and those living in Medicaid expansion states to better understand specific effects of ACA provisions on the Asian American population. Understanding the effects of the ACA on Asian American coverage can provide important insights for eliminating remaining coverage inequities for Black, Latino, and other racial and ethnic communities--at a moment when racial injustice has been laid bare. It also can help us identify remaining coverage challenges for different Asian American populations moving forward.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (13 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101773075 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101773075