Many Southern States Miss Opportunity to Address Health Disparities

By Tara Mancini

A new report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) indicates that a little more than half (53%) of uninsured people of color have family income at or below 138% and therefore should qualify for Medicaid in 2014 as the ACA originally intended. Yet, almost a third (30%) of this population lives in states that are not accepting federal funds to extend Medicaid and will be in the coverage gap, lacking access to affordable coverage.

Due to the large population of uninsured African Americans living in the South and the reticence of many Southern states to expand Medicaid, the coverage gap will impact 4 in 10 uninsured non-elderly Blacks.  After Blacks, the largest group to be affected, the coverage gap will impact 24% of Hispanics, 21% of other individuals of color, and 29% of whites.  According to the KCMU brief the largest shares of uninsured persons of color reside in three states: Florida, Georgia, and Texas, although the racial and ethnic composition vary by state.

In these three states, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to have health insurance coverage than non-White Hispanics, according to the HHS’ 2013 Health Disparities Profiles.  In terms of health outcomes, non-Hispanic Blacks in all three states have higher mortality rates due to heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes than non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanics in Texas have higher rates of diabetes-related mortality than non-Hispanic Whites in Texas.  And overall mortality rates for heart disease and stroke, the first and fourth largest causes of death in the United States, are most prevalent in the South and Southeastern US, respectively.

Eliminating disparities in health insurance coverage is certainly one necessary component to reducing disparities in health outcomes. By accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid, Southern states can begin to provide needed access to care for many of the currently uninsured and may also begin to make progress in reducing disparities in health outcomes among minority populations and the region overall.

Latest