Insuring undocumented residents could help solve multiple U.S. health care challenges

*Two things stand out in this article: the authors of the study and the specificity of their findings. The three authors, researchers at UCLA and Berkeley, are Latino, and they’re using their positions to draw attention to a misunderstood Latino community health need and how addressing that need can benefit the larger health needs of the country. As for the specificity, the study points to four precise things that require attention and action. VL

By Healthcanal

UCLA health policy care analysis finds four key problem areas for Latinos under Affordable Care Act

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Professor Alex Ortega says insuring undocumented people through the ACA and expanding Medicaid could help offset the anticipated high costs of managing other patients.

Latinos are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, and it’s expected that by 2050 they will comprise almost 30 percent of the U.S. population. Yet they are also the most underserved by health care and health insurance providers.

Latinos’ low rates of insurance coverage and poor access to health care strongly suggest a need for better outreach by health care providers and an improvement in insurance coverage. Although the implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 seems to have helped (approximately 25 percent of those eligible for coverage under the ACA are Latino), public health experts expect that, even with the ACA, Latinos will continue to have problems accessing high-quality health care.

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[Photo by heacphotos]

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