According to statistics released by the Department of Health and Human Services, the number of Latinos in the United States who gained health insurance since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2010 was 4.2 million. This is in addition to a new survey from Gallup that showed promising results for the nation’s insured population as a whole. In total, seven states now have uninsured rates at or below 5%. Of those states, Arkansas and Kentucky led the drop in numbers, from 22.5% to 9.1% and from 20.4% to 9.0%, respectively, thanks in large part to Medicaid expansion enacted by those states and state-operated health exchanges called for under Obamacare.
Overall the nation-wide uninsured rate stands at 9.2% according to the Obama Administration. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the total number of Americans still uninsured remains stands at 29 million, a 7 million drop since last year.
What’s troubling for the Latino community is that 21% remain uninsured, the largest demographic without coverage. While this represents a clear need for continued efforts to expand health coverage to more Americans, the Latino demographic concurrently represented the single largest drop in uninsured rates of the 88,600 adults surveyed.
Many insurers for both the federally administered marketplaces and state exchanges have requested large premium increase for the 2016 open enrollment period. Insurers say that rising drug prices and new data on patient health statuses have led to the request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Acting Administrator of the CMM, Andy Slavitt , has said that any increases “will be subject to vigorous rate review and revision and the final rates consumers will see this Fall will reflect the breadth of choice and competition in the Marketplace.”
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