Washington, DC—The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., today released a report entitled, Health Tax Incentives: Healthy Choices or Bad Medicine?. The report is an analysis of proposed policies that address the current broken health coverage system that puts millions of American lives at risk by making even the most basic medical care unaffordable. With an uninsurance rate of one in three (32.1%), Latinos are the Americans most in need of new health coverage options.

For the uninsured, going to the doctor for a routine check-up is an unaffordable luxury, and receiving emergency or long-term medical care is virtually impossible. Latinos are less likely than non-Hispanics to receive health insurance from their jobs. While public programs such as Medicaid are a viable option for many Hispanics, they are not designed to cover everyone, leaving 15 million Latinos without an alternative to being uninsured.

The report finds that there are some health tax incentives that have promise to reduce uninsurance in the Latino community, if carefully crafted. After analyzing three types of incentives—a tax credit, a standard deduction, and a Health Savings Account—the report concludes that a generous, refundable tax credit has the most potential to reach the millions of uninsured Latinos. NCLR cautions, however, that the effectiveness of any proposal depends on policymakers’ willingness to tackle the serious barriers that currently keep Hispanics and other Americans uninsured.

No family should have to choose between putting food on the table and being able to afford health care. NCLR believes that any reform proposal, including health tax incentives, must truly reach all Americans in order to close the health coverage gap.

For more information or to download a copy of Health Tax Incentives: Healthy Choices or Bad Medicine?, please visit NCLR’s website at www.nclr.org. Also available is “Healthy Choices or Bad Medicine? Health Tax Incentives Roundtable Transcript,” the proceedings of an expert discussion convened by NCLR to inform its analysis of these policies.

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