Why do people care about ethnicity

See Appendix 1 for an overview of indicators examined. These improvements helped narrow some disparities in health coverage, access, and utilization, but nonelderly Blacks and Hispanics continued to fare worse than Whites across most examined measures post-ACA Figure 2. Nonelderly Asians generally fared similar to Whites across measures. However, the data may mask underlying differences and disparities among subgroups of Asians. Across racial and ethnic groups, most measures of health status remained stable or improved compared to prior to the ACA Figure 3.

See Appendix Table 2 for an overview of indicators examined. These differences are primarily driven by differences in coverage rates among nonelderly adults by state expansion status. However, even among children, there are large differences in coverage rates by expansion status for some groups.

There are opportunities to increase coverage by enrolling eligible people in Medicaid or marketplace coverage, but Black, Hispanic, and Asian nonelderly uninsured people are less likely to be eligible compared to their White counterparts. Prior to the pandemic , over half of the nonelderly uninsured were eligible for financial assistance through Medicaid or the ACA Marketplaces. The American Rescue Plan Act ARPA enacted in further increased access to health coverage through temporary increases and expansions in eligibility for subsidies to buy health insurance through the health insurance marketplaces.

It also includes incentives to states that have not yet adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion to do so and provides a new option for states to extend the length of Medicaid coverage for postpartum women.

Black, Hispanic, and Asian nonelderly uninsured people are less likely to be eligible for ACA coverage than their White counterparts. For example, nonelderly uninsured Black are people more likely than their White counterparts to fall in the coverage gap in states that have not expanded Medicaid, and uninsured nonelderly Hispanic and Asian people are more likely to be ineligible for coverage due to immigration status, reflecting higher shares of noncitizens among these groups Figure 4.

In these states, 2. Most of these states are in the South, where a higher share of the Black population resides Figure 5. Uninsured nonelderly Hispanic and Asian people are less likely than their White counterparts to be eligible for coverage because they include larger shares of noncitizens who are subject to eligibility restrictions Figure 6. Under the ACA, lawfully present immigrants continue to face eligibility restrictions for coverage, with many having to wait five years after obtaining lawful status before they may enroll in Medicaid coverage.

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid and are prohibited from purchasing coverage through the Marketplaces. The economic downturn associated with COVID, which has disproportionately affected people of color, may have contributed to disruptions in health coverage.

Data suggest that low-income and Black and Hispanic adults have been particularly hard hit by the economic fallout of the pandemic, experiencing higher rates of job and income loss compared to their White counterparts. As many people lose jobs and income, many may face disruptions in their health coverage since most people get their insurance through their employer. While Medicaid and the ACA marketplaces have provided coverage options for people losing employer-sponsored coverage who might otherwise become uninsured, some of those losing employer-sponsored insurance may become uninsured.

There are opportunities to narrow disparities in coverage by enrolling eligible people in Medicaid or marketplace coverage. As noted, ARPA includes temporary increases and expansions in eligibility for subsidies to buy health insurance through the health insurance marketplaces as well as incentives to encourage states that have not yet adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion to do so.

These provisions increase access to coverage for people of color, which may help to reduce disparities in coverage. For example, analysis finds uninsured people eligible for zero-premium plans under the ARPA are disproportionately Hispanic.

Data also show that, if all remaining states expanded Medicaid, six in ten uninsured adults who would become eligible would be people of color. The Biden administration has taken actions to facilitate enrollment of eligible people in health coverage.

In January , President Biden issued an Executive Order on Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act , which established a special open enrollment period beginning February 15, for the federal health insurance marketplace, healthcare. During the period, people who are currently uninsured can enroll and people already enrolled in marketplace plans can change to different policies without any qualifying event.

The administration also restored funding for navigators to help eligible people enroll in health coverage, which research shows can play a key role in helping eligible individuals enroll, and launched initiatives focused on boosting enrollment among Black and Latino individuals.

In addition, the administration reversed changes to public charge policies made under the Trump Administration, which had made immigrant families more reluctant to enroll in health care and other programs even if they were eligible. This would include, for instance, people being afraid to talk about racism for fear of offending their white friends. Disrupting that view makes people who subscribe to it uncomfortable. The fact that Black and minority ethnic people are constantly treated as being different, even if several generations of their family have been born in Scotland, means that they face racism to some degree throughout their lives.

People of any colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin are protected from race discrimination under the Equality Act Hate crime legislation defines race in a similar way. As previously explained, structural racism is deeply ingrained in our society. The result of this is that minority ethnic people, especially those who are more visibly minority ethnic, experience everyday racism.

This has a big impact on their lives. It pervades all areas of life and is hard to challenge, so in some ways it can have a bigger impact than obvious forms of racism. Everyday racism acts to silence and demean minority ethnic people, and reinforces the inequalities they face. This happens even to people whose grandparents were born in Scotland.