FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris Administration Continues to Deliver for Hispanic Communities

This Hispanic Heritage Month, Protect Our Care is highlighting the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration when it comes to delivering quality and affordable health care to Hispanic American communities across the country. Due to systemic economic inequities, Hispanic Americans are disproportionately more likely to be uninsured or unable to afford the cost of health care. On top of this, Hispanic Americans also face worse health outcomes, due to both direct and systemic racism within health care settings. Hispanic Americans are around 70 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and 1.3 times more likely to die from it.

Programs such as Medicaid expansion, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and the Inflation Reduction Act have become vital lifelines for marginalized communities. The added protections and expansions to these programs implemented by the Biden-Harris administration have had and will continue to have broad sweeping positive effects for Hispanic communities.

Unfortunately, health care for Hispanic families across the nation is at risk under the MAGA agenda. If Donald Trump gets his way, he will repeal and sabotage the ACA and Inflation Reduction Act, take away protections for pre-existing conditions, slash Medicaid and Medicare funding, raise prescription drug costs, and strip away health care from millions of Americans. Read more about the MAGA war on health care here. 

By The Numbers

• Over 950,000 Hispanic Americans currently take one or more of the ten drugs which were negotiated down in price by Medicare.
• Nearly 60 percent of all births to Hispanic mothers are covered by the Medicaid program.
• Hispanic people make up 18.5 percent of the U.S. population, but nearly 30 percent of Medicaid enrollees.
• Hispanic Americans enrolled on the ACA marketplaces save around $700 annually thanks to enhanced premium tax credits
• Over 130,000 Hispanic Americans now save $500 or more annually on insulin.
• Nearly 4.9 million Hispanic Americans can receive vaccines at no cost.
• Over 55,000 Hispanic Medicare enrollees now receive full benefits through the Extra Help Low-Income Subsidy Program.

A Closer Look

Nearly one million Hispanic Americans will see prescription costs lowered thanks to Medicare’s price negotiation power. Made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare is now negotiating prices with drug companies for some of the most expensive and commonly prescribed drugs. Medicare announced new, lower negotiated prices for the first ten drugs selected for negotiation, with list prices lowered by up to 79 percent for seniors. Around 957,400 Hispanic Americans are currently taking one or more of the ten drugs which were brought down in price, of which around 48 percent are also women.

Below is a breakdown of the announced discounts from Medicare’s negotiation on drug prices

Medicaid Expansion is reducing inequities in health coverage for Hispanic Americans. Increasing Medicaid access is the single most important action available to expand coverage and reduce racial inequities in the American health care system. The majority of Americans who would gain coverage if the remaining 10 holdout states expanded Medicaid are people of color. The ACA led to historic reductions in racial disparities in access to health care, but racial gaps in insurance coverage narrowed the most in states that adopted Medicaid expansion. States which expanded their Medicaid programs saw a 45 percent reduction in the gap between uninsured white and Hispanic adults. 

The out-of-pocket spending cap will drastically reduce costs for Hispanic Americans. Starting in 2025, a maximum out-of-pocket cap of $2,000 in drug spending will be implemented for those on Medicare. High prescription drug prices disproportionately impact Hispanic Americans. Out-of-pocket drug spending is highest for those who rely on high-cost treatments for serious health conditions; Hispanic Medicare enrollees tend to face higher rates of certain types of cancer, hypertension, and diabetes, and will benefit from these provisions. According to HHS projections, the out-of-pocket cap could save more than 2.4 million Hispanic enrollees an average of 33 percent in out-of-pocket costs. Thanks to the IRA, Hispanic Americans could see the second greatest reduction in out-of-pocket spending of any racial or ethnic group. 

Advance Premium Tax Credits save Hispanic Americans on the ACA marketplace hundreds annually. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, the average consumer on the ACA marketplace saves over $700 per year on premiums. The Biden-Harris administration has also substantially increased outreach and education efforts to ensure people know these affordable health plans are available to them. Both of these changes have led to substantial increases in enrollment among Hispanic Americans. Between 2020 and 2022, around 900,000 Hispanic Americans newly enrolled in a low- or no-cost Marketplace plan, an increase in enrollment of nearly 40 percent. These efforts are critical in helping reduce coverage disparities, as Hispanic Americans form a disproportionate share of uninsured people in America. Hispanic Americans face uninsured rates of 19 percent as of 2021 – over 2.5 times higher than their white counterparts.

Medicaid is improving the health care for children in marginalized communities. Hispanic children made up roughly 25 percent of the total child population, but 35 percent of the children on Medicaid. This coverage not only provides health coverage in the immediate term, but also provides significant long term benefits, such as being less likely to be hospitalized and more likely to graduate high school and college.

The monthly insulin cap of $35 continues to allow for more Hispanic Americans to stay on regular insulin treatment. Starting in 2023, the Inflation Reduction Act capped monthly insulin copays for people on Medicare at $35, which helps approximately 131,000 Hispanic Medicare enrollees save approximately $500 annually. Before the IRA, more than a third of insulin fills for Medicare enrollees required patients to pay more than $35 out-of-pocket per month, and nearly a quarter of insulin fills exceeded $70 in cost-sharing. Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries also have among the lowest median incomes and face a higher risk of skipping, rationing, or delaying insulin doses.

Medicaid continues to improve financial security for Hispanic families. The racial wealth gap in America is staggering. According to data from the US Census Bureau, in 2017, the annual median household income for white Americans was nearly $20,000 higher than for Hispanic households. As a result, policies to boost financial well-being undoubtedly help people of color. The bottom 10th percentile of earners In Medicaid expansion states saw a 22.4 percent boost in their income, compared to 11.4 percent in non-expansion states. Over the past decade, research has shown the gap in medical debt between Medicaid expansion and holdout states has grown approximately 30 percent. In 2020, Americans living in holdout states carried an average of $375 more in medical debt than their counterparts in expansion states.

Hispanic seniors can receive vaccinations at no cost . The new law eliminated cost-sharing for recommended vaccines covered under Medicare Part D, which 4.9 million Hispanic Americans are enrolled in. This critical change helps address affordability barriers for many Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries. If the new vaccine provisions had been in effect in 2021, about 245,000 Hispanic enrollees would not have had any out-of-pocket costs for getting vaccinated. Improved affordability may also reduce existing racial and ethnic disparities in access to these vaccines, and vaccinations are particularly important for this group because seniors can be more susceptible to infectious diseases due to natural changes in the immune system that come with aging.

Improvements to the Extra Help Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) Program will reduce costs for Hispanic Americans and increase health care access. The Inflation Reduction Act ensures no Americans with incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level pay a premium when buying their coverage on the Marketplace through the LIS program. The LIS program, which saves beneficiaries an estimated average of $5,300 a year, disproportionately serves Hispanic beneficiaries. An estimated 68.5 percent of Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries are eligible for or enrolled in this subsidy program compared to less than 20 percent of white beneficiaries. Hispanic Americans represent nearly 21 percent of those eligible for or enrolled in the subsidy program overall. Its expansion under the Inflation Reduction Act has extended full LIS benefits – including deductible-free, premium-free care with low, fixed copayments for covered Part D medications – to more than 55,000 Hispanic Medicare enrollees previously receiving partial benefits. As well, the expansion of the low-income subsidy for those on Medicare will allow for as many as 661,396 Americans who have no drug coverage but are otherwise eligible for the low-income subsidy to take up the program, lowering out-of-pocket prescription costs by around $300 per person.