Since the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) implementation in 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed 16.4 million Americans have enrolled for health insurance coverage.

Yet, the Latino community has proven to be a complex group to enroll.

Prior to the ACA's implementation, the HHS identified the Latino uninsured rate at 41.8 percent, but five years later, the rate fell by 12.3 percent, or 4.2 million Latinos gaining health coverage.

"Anything in the millions is great in terms of the effort of this law," said Jose L. Plaza, national director of Latino engagement for Enroll America, a national nonprofit and nonpartisan organization aimed at educating people about the ACA.

"I think the numbers speak for themselves. Latinos have seen a drop of 12 percent in being uninsured. We are the largest when it comes to ethnic minorities who lacked coverage...which is huge, it is a critical drop, but it also means, in realistic terms, that Latinos now have better access to better coverage."

Plaza acknowledged the top health concerns among the Latino community: diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure, and glaucoma, which "could easily be prevented" if people went in and had a check up and be determined early on. He said many Latinos are now being taken care of due to "affordable and quality" health care access.

Despite the gains, Latinos remain the largest uninsured population among ethnic minorities.

"There's a lot work to be done in the coming years," Plaza added.

When asked why it has been difficult for Latinos to enroll through either the federal or state-based health insurance marketplaces, Plaza revealed he encountered Latinos who have received no health coverage for decades and many would wait until it is serious enough to then visit the emergency room. He identified that there have been several barriers placed before Latinos, such as the prescribed notion of having a primary-care physician, understanding co-payments, language, and immigration status.

"We know that Latinos are highly represented when it comes to mixed-status families and the fear was there of the repercussions if you wanted to apply for coverage," said Plaza, noting undocumented immigrants cannot apply for the ACA's benefits but permanent lawful resident who have lived in the U.S. for more than five years and those who are U.S. citizens can apply. An undocumented immigrant parent with U.S.-born children can apply for health coverage for the family. Due to the undocumented status, the immigrant will not be penalized for lacking health insurance.

Plaza said the challenges in helping enroll the Latino and African American communities had similarities, but connecting with Latinos required further assistance due to many speaking only Spanish. Utilizing the media was an important aspect of the outreach, including print publications, since many Latinos are still daily subscribers to newspapers. In terms of how Latinos were being reached, it was found that in-person assistance was the preferred mechanism to connect with the community about the ACA and its benefits. Enroll America, in partnership with other organizations and the HHS, did conduct outreach efforts for African Americans, the faith community, and women.

"We learned early on that Latinos were not going to answer their door and give in their Social Security and financial information...so we had to create events where we met the consumer," said Plaza, later adding, "We made sure we were bringing in folks that spoke the language, looked like the community that we were addressing."

The second open enrollment period -- which occurred between Nov. 15, 2014 and Feb. 15, 2015 -- was the first enrollment period for HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, who succeeded after Kathleen Sebelius.

"[Burwell] is very passionate about this work, she had a massive campaign to take over in revamping the system for the second open enrollment period, and I think she's done an excellent job," said Plaza. "One of the big things that she spoke about was about being transparent, and I think under her leadership they've definitely done so."

While the main second open enrollment period concluded, a special enrollment period is still open until April 30 for people eligible in "qualifying life events," which have been identified as getting married, having a baby or adopting a child, moving outside the original insurance coverage area, income changes and immigration status changes. People who recently lost coverage due to turning 26 years old and therefore not eligible for their parents' coverage, employment changes, divorce or a death in the family are also eligible for the special enrollment period.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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