Thanks to opportunities created by the Affordable Care Act, the Control Inflation Act, and other recent federal policies, more than 9 million uninsured Latinos now have health coverage.
The Inflation Control Act also lowered the cost of insulin to $35 for people covered by Medicare, providing a lifeline to older Hispanics suffering from diabetes.
But more is needed. Ten million Latinos remain uninsured, leaving them without access to care or protection from medical bills they can’t afford. Millions of other Latinos have health insurance, but out-of-pocket costs are too high to afford health care. And millions of Latinos who are too young to qualify for Medicare still face prescription drug costs that are completely out of their control.
To build on recent advances and further protect Latinos from unaffordable health care costs, our nation’s leaders must enact new policies that accomplish several goals.
We help eligible Latinos obtain health insurance by reducing red tape and providing trusted community agencies with the resources they need to help families obtain and maintain coverage. Today, arbitrary barriers deny health care to millions of poor Latinos in states like Texas and Florida, which deny federal funding for Medicaid expansion, and to immigrants across the country. abolished. Lowering the barriers posed by high deductibles through measures such as providing financial assistance to low-wage workers who suffer from very high deductibles. Extend the same protections that currently protect Medicare beneficiaries from unaffordable prescription drug costs to all Americans.
Above all, federal policymakers must fiercely resist efforts to roll back the United States. That starts by making permanent the financial assistance that currently helps millions of Latinos and other Americans buy their health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
