Medicaid Expansion Has Helped Narrow Racial Disparities in Coverage and Access to Care
A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates that the expansion of Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has contributed to narrowing gaps in health coverage and access to care for people of color. The Medicaid expansion provides coverage to non-elderly adults with incomes below 138 percent of the poverty line and has increased coverage to over 12 million people. Gaps in the uninsured rates of people of color have decreased significantly in the 36 states and the District of Columbia that have expanded Medicaid. The gap in uninsured rates between white and Black adults shrunk by 51 percent in expansion states (versus 33 percent in non-expansion states), while the gap between white and Hispanic adults shrunk by 45 percent in expansion states (27 percent in non-expansion states). According to the report, if the remaining states implemented expansion, at least 4 million additional uninsured adults would become eligible for Medicaid coverage and of those adults, nearly 60 percent are people of color.