ACA Awareness and Marketplace Use: Implications for Outreach and Enrollment among Hispanics

For decades, Hispanics have had the highest uninsured rates in the United States. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has the potential to reduce this decades-long gap in coverage by providing new, affordable health insurance options through state insurance marketplaces.  Tracking how Hispanics fare in these marketplaces – are they aware of their existence; are they going to the marketplaces to shop for insurance; are they enrolling in coverage – is integral to our understanding of the first year of enrollment.  Using data from the Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey, December 2013 and the Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Marketplace Surveys, conducted by Social Science Research Solutions in summer 2013 and spring 2014, our analysis will examine how Hispanic awareness and use of the marketplaces has changed since the marketplaces opened for business in October. As of the end of 2013, nearly 7 in 10 white and black adults who are uninsured or have individual coverage were aware of the marketplaces while only half of Hispanics reported being aware. Similarly, use of the marketplaces by Hispanics and blacks lagged that of whites: 28% of white, 20% of black, and 19% of Hispanic adults who were potentially eligible for coverage had gone to the marketplace. We will compare these early enrollment and awareness numbers to those at the end of marketplace open enrollment in April 2014. Tracking awareness and enrollment by racial and ethnic groups is central to improving outreach and enrollment efforts during the 2015 open enrollment period.