Racial and ethnic inequities in health care coverage and access: 2013–2019
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Data brief (Commonwealth Fund)
- Author(s):
- Baumgartner, Jesse C., author Collins, Sara R., author Radley, David C., author
- Contributor(s):
- Commonwealth Fund, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [New York, New York] : The Commonwealth Fund, June 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- African Americans -- statistics & numerical data Whites -- statistics & numerical data Health Services Accessibility -- statistics & numerical data Healthcare Disparities -- statistics & numerical data Hispanic or Latino Insurance Coverage -- statistics & numerical data United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The Affordable Care Act (ACA) helped to significantly reduce U.S. racial and ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage and to improve access to care, especially in states that expanded eligibility for their Medicaid programs. But, after 2016, coverage gains stalled and slightly eroded. Combined with job and income losses stemming from COVID-19, this interruption in progress has left many people vulnerable to the health and economic risk of lacking comprehensive and affordable insurance during a public health crisis, particularly lower-income residents of the 14 states that have not expanded Medicaid. However, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) provides nonexpansion states with even greater incentives to expand their Medicaid programs to include all low-income adults. States that pursue expansion will receive a temporary increase in the federal matching rate for their existing Medicaid population and will still pay only 10 percent of the cost for the new enrollees. In addition, the ARP temporarily enhances premium subsidies for plans purchased through the marketplaces, including $0 premium plans for individuals with incomes up to $19,140 and for families of four earning up to $39,300. President Biden's American Families Plan proposes to make these subsidies permanent. In this brief, we update our 2020 report on coverage and access inequities using 2013–2019 data from the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (ACS PUMS) and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We examine trends in Black and Latinx/Hispanic disparities across the following measures, with a particular focus on the effects of Medicaid expansion on equity at the state level: (1) adults ages 19 to 64 who are uninsured; (2) adults ages 18 to 64 who went without care in the past 12 months because of cost; (3) adults ages 18 to 64 who report having a usual health care provider.
- 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 (23 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918300978106676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918300978106676