Healthcare coverage has soared among Latinos, according to a new report, "The Affordable Care Act and Health Insurance for Latinos," issued by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that promotes high-performing health care and supports independent research on health care issues.

The Affordable Care Act has had a profound effect on the historically underinsured Latino community, as the percentage of uninsured American Latinos lacking health coverage, ages 19 to 64, dropped from 36 percent to 23 percent between summer 2013 and spring 2014.

With the expansion of Medicaid under the new health care law and the broad array of coverage plans offered to patrons in the insurance marketplace, Latinos are accessing health care like they never have before. In California alone, the uninsured rate among working-age Latino adults dropped by nearly half (35 percent to 17 percent) -- in a state where Latinos made up about 60 percent of the uninsured.

"The Affordable Care Act appears to be working for millions of Latinos who, as a group, have long faced the nation's highest uninsured rates," said the Commonwealth Fund's Michelle Doty, the report's lead author. "These substantial improvements will mean better health and health care for millions of people."

The uninsured rate for overall U.S. adults under the age of 65 dropped 5 percent (from 20 percent to 15 percent) during the same stretch of time. Americans who weren't granted health benefits through their jobs were able to shop the state-based marketplace plans, and those making less than four times the federal poverty level (about $94,000 for a family of four) qualified for subsidies. Also, nearly half of the states expanded Medicaid coverage, offering subsidized government coverage to those earning less than 138 percent of the poverty line ($32,500 for a family of four).

The decline in uninsured citizens disproves naysayers who believed the health law wouldn't reach Latinos and other disadvantaged groups, who've historically experienced difficulty when attempting to access medical care, mental health assistance and family planning resources.

All that said, within states that chose not to expand Medicaid, which includes Texas and Florida, the uninsured rate remain statistically and virtually unchanged, stated the report. Republican opponents of the ACA have rejected federally funded expansion of Medicaid in those states, saying that the expansions risk leaving states with future financial obligations that they won't be able to afford.

Latino outreach by the Obama administration and other supporters of the law persist, however. Enhanced Spanish-language assistance, community enrollment drives and door-to-door campaigns continue so that sign-ups will match the number of sign-ups in March, when Latinos made up a third of those who signed up for Obamacare.

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