Latino Enrollment Is Critical For Obamacare, So Is It Happening?

*15.5 million young and uninsured Latinos can tip the balance of Obamacare. VL

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Five Thirty Eight Politics

This time last year, news coverage of Obamacare was shifting from the broken HealthCare.gov website to the question of whether enough people — and the right people — would sign up to make the insurance exchanges set up under President Obama’s health care law work. Now, as we enter the final month of the second open-enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the numbers look good, with the government on track to surpass the year’s signup goal of 9.1 million people.

Young adults and Latinos are particularly important groups for the enrollment effort. While we have data on young adults (35 percent of people who enrolled in the second period are currently under the age of 35, beating out last year’s 28 percent1), understanding Latino enrollment has been more challenging.

Latinos are a key demographic. While they make up about 18 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for more than 30 percent of the uninsured before the ACA kicked in. These 15.5 million uninsured Latinos are also relatively young and healthy, meaning they can help balance the makeup of enrollees on marketplace insurance plans, keeping prices down for everyone.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by The White House]

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