Policy Dilemmas in Latino Health Care and Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

The changing Latino demographic in the United States presents a number of challenges to health care policy makers, clinicians, organizations, and other stakeholders. Studies have demonstrated that Latinos tend to have worse patterns of access to, and utilization of, health care than other ethnic and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of public health 2015-03, Vol.36 (1), p.525-544
Main Authors: Ortega, Alexander N, Rodriguez, Hector P, Vargas Bustamante, Arturo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
access to care
Adult
Child
Child Health Services - organization & administration
Child Health Services - utilization
community health centers
Delivery of Health Care - organization & administration
Delivery of Health Care - utilization
Emigrants and Immigrants - legislation & jurisprudence
Health Policy - legislation & jurisprudence
Health Services Accessibility - legislation & jurisprudence
Health Services Accessibility - organization & administration
Hispanic Americans
Hispanic Americans - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Medicaid
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - organization & administration
Primary Health Care - organization & administration
quality of care
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Summary:The changing Latino demographic in the United States presents a number of challenges to health care policy makers, clinicians, organizations, and other stakeholders. Studies have demonstrated that Latinos tend to have worse patterns of access to, and utilization of, health care than other ethnic and racial groups. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 may ameliorate some of these disparities. However, even with the ACA, it is expected that Latinos will continue to have problems accessing and using high-quality health care, especially in states that are not expanding Medicaid eligibility as provided by the ACA. We identify four current policy dilemmas relevant to Latinos' health and ACA implementation: ( a ) the need to extend coverage to the undocumented; ( b ) the growth of Latino populations in states with limited insurance expansion; ( c ) demands on public and private systems of care; and ( d ) the need to increase the number of Latino physicians while increasing the direct patient-care responsibilities of nonphysician Latino health care workers.
ISSN:0163-7525
1545-2093
DOI:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122421