A recent poll of Latinos in Colorado revealed that over half of Latinos —54 percent—don’t know the key aspects of the Affordable Care Act, encouraging initiatives to educate Latinos of the new law.
“At this point, information is relatively low but the desire to be engaged in the process is very high,” said Dr. Gabriel Sanchez, Director of Research for Latino Decisions, who conducted the survey for Adelante con la Salud: Latino Health Care Engagement Project, which seeks to inform the state’s Latinos on the new law.
According to the poll, only 18 percent of Latinos knew parents can insure their children until the age of 26 and only 14 percent knew insurance companies cannot discriminate due to a pre-existing condition. A mere 6 percent of Colorado Latinos knew about the health care exchanges.
One of the main objectives of the new law is to make available affordable insurance for Latino families, who are among the groups that can most benefit from the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of health care coverage. Currently, about one in three Latinos is uninsured, and the high cost of health care is the biggest obstacle among Latino families who wish to obtain health insurance.
Melanie Herrera Botz, co-Project director from Adelante con la Salud, explained many families need to understand the basics, like how to navigate the health care system. “If we don’t educate them on how to use it, it won’t work,” she said.
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