A new report credits the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with reducing the number of uninsured Latino children in America to an all-time low.
The study only looked at the first year the ACA was in effect, but found the percentage of uninsured Hispanic kids dropped from 11.5% to 9.7% between 2013 and 2014.
OUR NEW APP INSURES YOU’LL FIND GOOD NEWS EVERY DAY—> Download FREE for Android and iOS
Roughly 300,000 more Latino kids had insurance over the year, reducing the number who are without insurance to 1.7 million.
The largest decline came in Nevada, where the uninsured rate among Hispanic children fell nearly seven percentage points — form 20% to 13.3 percent in one year.
Researchers say the vast majority of those Latino children who remain uninsured are American citizens eligible for Medicaid and CHIP health coverage.
CHECK OUT: American Teens Shun Alcohol and Cigarettes in Record Numbers
“This report points to the need to remove more barriers to coverage, and find ways to get the whole family covered so that Hispanic children can grow up healthy and more financially secure,” report co-author Sonya Schwartz said.
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the National Council of La Raza collaborated on the report.
Photo: Alex Barth, CC