Access to Health Insurance

Overview:

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s most recent analysis of the 2000 Census, 34% of Hispanics are uninsured, compared with 22% of African Americans, 20% of Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 12% of Whites.

While Latinos have high work participation rates and are the cornerstone of our nation’s low-wage workforce, among low-wage workers 63.2% of non-citizens of Hispanic origin and 36.3% of citizens of Hispanic descent are uninsured. Further, despite significant national efforts to provide health insurance to children through the implementation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), according to the Current Population Survey, 24.9% of Latino children are uninsured, compared to 7.6% of White non-Hispanic children, 14.3% of Black children, and 12.1% of Asian/Pacific Islander children.

In addition to the lack of health insurance, Latinos are further denied access to our health system by the high cost of health care, a lack of linguistically and culturally competent providers, legal barriers to Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility for immigrants, and a lack of outreach efforts that effectively enroll and retain Latinos in public health programs.

NCLR Position:

NCLR supports proposals that eliminate or reduce impediments that prevent Latinos from accessing health care, including efforts for comprehensive legislation to provide health insurance, and restoring legal immigrants’ eligibility to Medicaid and SCHIP.

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