Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act and 4.2 million Latinos gaining access to health insurance as a result, Latinos continue to be the most uninsured demographic in the United States and that statistic could worsen if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in the King v. Burwell case being decided later this month.
At stake in the suit is whether or not federal subsidies are legally valid and provided for to individuals enrolled in federally-administered health exchanges as opposed to state-administered exchanges based on the 2010 law, potentially revoking subsidies that roughly 6 million of enrollees currently depend on to pay for their insurance coverage.
President Barack Obama speaking about the ramifications of the pending court decision if in fact the Court rules against the administration said that “It means that millions of people who are obtaining insurance currently with subsidies suddenly aren’t getting those subsidies; many of them can’t afford it; they pull out.”
With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Latino community saw a 12.3% decrease in the number of uninsured. That number is part of the overall 16.4 million Americans that gained coverage since the law’s passage and implementation and represents the largest decrease in the uninsured rate in roughly 40 years according to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell.
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