Minorities More Affected By Medicaid Gap

April 14, 2015 Robert Sheen Health Care Coverage, Medicaid

Low-income Black and Hispanic Americans are much more likely than Whites to be affected by a “ gap” in the 22 states that have not expanded Medicaid, declining funds for that expansion by the Act.

About 3.7 million low-income adults in the non-expansion states fall into a gap in ; they don’t qualify for their state’s , and they are too poor to receive to buy through an exchange.

A Kaiser Family Foundation ,/span>study found that about 2.1 million adults, or about 57% all those in the gap, are adults color.

Blacks account for 27% adults in the gap, and Hispanics 24%. Other people color make up another 5%, and the remaining 43% are White.

Well over half those in the gap live in just three states: Texas at 26%, Florida 18%, and North Carolina 10%. Nearly half the 1 million poor Black adults in the gap live in Texas, Florida and Georgia. Among the 0,000 Hispanics in the gap, 61% live in Texas and 20% in Florida.

If all states had expanded , about 57% Black adults would be eligible for , but only about a third Hispanic adults. Kaiser said this reflects the fact that many Hispanics would not qualify because their immigration status.

Hispanics are less likely than Blacks to fall into the gap, Kaiser noted, because numbers Hispanics live in several key states that have adopted the expansion, including California, New York, and Arizona.

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