Hispanic Heritage Month officially began yesterday on September 15th, so we’re reflecting on how our broken, for-profit health care system especially harms Latinx people across the United States.

The Latinx community has one of the highest uninsured rates of any racial or ethnic group within the United States — it was 18% in 2022, over 2.5 times higher than the rate for white people (6.6%).¹ Latinx children are more than twice as likely as white children to be uninsured. KFF warns these racial disparities in coverage could further widen with Medicaid unwinding.

In addition to experiencing high uninsured rates, Latinx people are disproportionately hurt by our health care system in other ways. According to KFF/The Undefeated 2020 Survey on Race and Health, one in five Latinx adults reported being treated unfairly due to their race or ethnicity while getting health care for themselves or a family member.²

And during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Indigenous, Black, and Latinx people were almost 3 times more likely to contract, be hospitalized, and die from Covid-19.³ Of Latinx people who have died from Covid-19, more than 25% were under the age of 60 as compared to 6% of white people.

So how do we begin to address these issues? Medicare for All is the answer: it would cover all people with comprehensive benefits and no financial barriers to care. Our legislation also contains provisions to build, upgrade, and modernize facilities and hire staff in underserved areas. While there is no single policy that would solve systemic racism, Medicare for All would go a long way toward addressing these inequities.

Together, we are working to build public pressure to pass Medicare for All legislation in Congress and establish a single-payer health care system that benefits every person and aims to eliminate these discrepancies.

If you speak Spanish and want to get involved in our Medicare Para Todos work reaching out to monolingual Spanish speakers about Medicare for All, sign up here to join us →

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You can also follow our Medicare Para Todos campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Thank you for anything you can do to help us achieve a health care system that works for ALL. Let’s use this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month as a reminder to recommit ourselves to the task of achieving health justice!

In solidarity,

Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All

 

Sources:
1 - Health Coverage by Race and Ethnicity, 2010-2022
2 - KFF/The Undefeated Survey on Race and Health
3 - COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity as of Winter 2022