Healthcare Reform

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) experienced larger relative gains in health insurance coverage than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010.

The uninsured rate for nonelderly Latinos decreased from 32.7 percent to 18.0 percent, from 2010 to 2022, however, Latinos are more than twice as likely to be uninsured as non-Latino Whites.

Recent legislative and administrative policy initiatives have built on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of health insurance coverage and improvements in access to and utilization of health care services.

Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage provisions, the uninsured rate among nonelderly Black Americans decreased by 10 percentage points, from 20.9 percent in 2010 to 10.8 percent in 2022.

Effective January 1, 2023, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) eliminated cost sharing and deductibles for adult vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) covered under Medicare Part D. In 2023, 10.3 million Medicare Part D enrollees received a recommended vaccine free of charge, which saved enrollees more than $400 million in out-of-pocket costs.

This issue brief presents Marketplace enrollment and plan selections by race and ethnicity among 2015-2023 Open Enrollment Period enrollees in HealthCare.gov states using combined self-reported race and ethnicity information with imputed data for missing values.

The Affordable Care Act substantially transformed the market for non-group private health insurance, introducing new consumer protections and coverage standards and establishing Health Insurance Marketplaces.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is helping people with Medicare afford their medications, including the 2.1 million Asian, 5.8 million Black, and 5.3 million Latino Part D enrollees. These fact sheets review existing research to present the projected impacts of key IRA Medicare drug-related provisions for these populations.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate prices directly with participating manufacturers for selected drugs that are high expenditure, single source drugs without generic or biosimilar competition.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will make key changes to improve drug affordability for people who have Medicare.