Latino Children Face Health Insurance Barriers

By Consumers For Quality Care, on July 14, 2021

According to PBS, more than 1.8 million Latino children in the United States do not have health insurance and are more than two times as likely to be without coverage as non-Latino children.

One of the main correlations between whether or not a Latino child has health care is whether they live in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Four of the top five states with the largest percentages of uninsured Latino children have not expanded Medicaid.

“It is very disturbing, not least of which because these trends were occurring as Latino kids were entering this tremendous health crisis, which put them in an even more vulnerable position,” said Matthew Snider, a senior health policy analyst with UnidosUS.

Fear of enrolling in safety net programs, bureaucratic issues such as paperwork, late mailings, and coding errors account for just some of the hurdles communities of color face in obtaining health care, particularly for those who do not speak English.

CQC continues to expose inequalities and racial disparities and urges policymakers to eliminate all forms of discrimination in health care.