According to new research by the Commonwealth Fund, the Affordable Care Act, which was passed in 2010 under former President Barack Obama, has considerably reduced racial and ethnic inequities in access to health care by expanding health insurance coverage nationwide.
The research adds, “Since its implementation in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has dramatically reduced racial and ethnic disparities in insurance coverage and access to care — especially in states that expanded Medicaid programs.”
Prior to the implementation of the Medicaid expansion in 2013 — a feature of the ACA that made more families eligible for Medicaid coverage — data indicates that 40.2% of the Hispanic population, 24.4% of the Black population, and 14.5% of the White population were uninsured in the United States. In contrast, by 2021, these percentages drastically decreased to 24.5%, 13.5%, and 8.2%, respectively.
According to the research, between 2020 and 2022, more than 5 million people gained coverage due to the epidemic, bringing the total uninsured rate in the United States to a historic low of 8%. The report highlights particular ACA successes, such as increased adult coverage rates for African Americans, Hispanics, and whites.
According to the report, the coverage difference between Black and White people decreased from 9.9 to 5.3 percentage points, while the coverage gap between Hispanic and White adults decreased from 25.7 to 16.3 percentage points.
In addition, the report found that adult uninsured rates for Black, Hispanic, and White people all decreased during the first two years of the pandemic in all states, regardless of whether they expanded their Medicare coverage or not, and that Black and Hispanic adults experienced greater gains in insurance coverage than White adults between 2019 and 2021.
