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WASHINGTON — New reports released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) showed uninsured rates among minorities dropped since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released four reports Friday finding gains in healthcare coverage in minority communities between 2010 and 2022.
Based on census data, uninsurance rates for minority communities were as follows:
- Black Americans: 20.9% to 10.8%
- Latinos: 32.7% to 18%
- Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders: 16.6% to 6.2%
- American Indians and Alaska Natives: 32.4% to 19.9%
Neera Tanden, Director of Domestic Policy Council to The White House, said the trend is due to the Biden Administration’s commitment to ensuring coverage reaches underrepresented communities.
“We are particularly proud of the fact that coverage that marketplace coverage under the Affordable Care Act has increased 95 percent for Black Americans, going from 870,000 to 1.7 million people,” Director Tanden told the Black Wall Street Times. “Our expectation, the numbers we have, is that that’s likely to be 2 million in 2024. That’s just a really substantial increase of people who have coverage.”
Healthcare enrollment stagnated from 2016 to 2021, according to another report released Friday by the ASPE titled “Improving Access to Affordable and Equitable Health
Coverage: A Review from 2010 to 2024.”
After attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed in the U.S. legislature, the Trump Administration went through several efforts to change the health insurance climate, including eliminating federal cost-sharing reduction payments in 2017, reducing the individual mandate penalty to $0 in 2019 and reducing federal investments from the Marketplace Navigator program from $63 million in 2016 to $36 million in 2017 and $10 million in 2018 to 2020.
The report stated the changes from the Trump Administration affected the ACA Marketplaces, causing increased premiums, decreased insurer participation and lower enrollment.
Part of the work done has been very intentional about making sure people get information on how to get health care, Tanden said.
Open enrollment to sign up for health insurance begins Nov. 1 and can be done through HealthCare.gov.
Enrollment outreach program to use $500 million over five years
The Marketplace Navigator program is used to help underrepresented communities get health care by putting people on the ground to build a connection to insurance enrollment.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to award $500 million over five years of performance. The first 12-month budget will be $100 million, the largest investment in the Navigator program.
“That’s really important, and we know that navigators are in communities that are underrepresented, they’re in churches, they’re in community centers, and they’re really getting the word out,” Tanden said. “And that has been an incredibly effective strategy because a lot of people just don’t know. Many people have never had health insurance. They’ve never signed up for a health insurance program. They’ve never had it from their employer. So it’s really a lot of new information, and navigators are a critical component of that.”
CMS announced in March that 21.4 million people were selected or were automatically re-enrolled in health insurance coverage through HealthCare.Gov and the state-level marketplace during the 2023-2024 open enrollment.
“And the fact that during our administration, we’ve gotten millions more people covered is also something we’re just incredibly proud of, because we know that coverage really matters, affordability really matters,” Tanden said. “The biggest reason people don’t have health insurance in America is because they can’t afford it. And we are proud of the fact that this President built on the Affordable Care Act.”