Latino Youth Face Disparities in Health Insurance, in CT and Nationwide

In the United States, Latino children are more than two times as likely to be without health insurance as non-Latino children. According to a recent analysis by the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, in 2016 the percentage of non-Latino children without insurance stood at 3.7%, compared with 7.7% for Latino children.  By 2019, the numbers climbed to 4.4% for non-Latino children and to 9.3% for Latino kids. The data was highlighted in the Pew Charitable Trusts publication Stateline.

In Connecticut, while the disparity is not as great, it has also grown wider in recent years.

The uninsured rate for Latino children in Connecticut is 4.8%, compared with 3.1% for non-Latino children, a difference of more than 1.5 times. 

Between 2016 and 2019, the percentage of Latino children with health insurance fell in the United States by 1.6 percentage points and by much more in some states.  In Connecticut the uninsured rate for Latino children was 3.6% in 2016; it then rose to 4.8% by 2019, according to analysis by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families based on U.S. Census data.

It appears to be a decades-old dilemma that has eluded solution. 

A report by the State Office of Health Care Access two decades ago indicated that 7.5% of Hispanic youth under age 18 were uninsured in Connecticut, compared with 5.5% of non-Hispanic children.  Issued in 1998, the report noted that “The uninsured rate for Hispanic children age 18 and under was almost 1.4 times higher than the rate for non-Hispanic children.”

In 2006, roughly two-thirds of all Connecticut children without health insurance were Hispanic, according to the Office of Health Care Access, as noted published reports at that time. A report by the Hispanic Health Council’s Latino Policy Institute that year noted that “Latino children were the most likely to be uninsured,” pointing out that “Latino children are hospitalized at a rate 5 times higher than that of non-Latino white children.”  The report also observed that “The magnitude of the problem is enormous, reflective of systemic root causes that must be addressed through decisive policy change.”

A decade later, the University of Connecticut’s UConn Today reported in 2018 that Latino children “continue to be the most uninsured, accounting for one-third of all uninsured children nationally.”

“Lack of health insurance in children is a tremendous health disparity that urgently needs to be addressed, especially in the highly impacted Latino community,” Dr. Glenn Flores, professor and associate chair of research in the Department of Pediatrics at UConn School of Medicine and chief research officer at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center told UConn Today. “When children are uninsured, they are at much higher risk of poorer health, lack of healthcare access, more trips to the emergency room and hospitalizations, and sadly, premature death.”

At that time, a program that trained parent mentors in the Latino community found that they were highly effective at providing uninsured Latino children with health insurance coverage. A study of the initiative, conducted in Texas but led by Flores, found that when “parent mentors taught parents about available insurance programs, helped them complete and submit applications, contacted and acted as a family liaison, assisted families with finding medical and dental homes for their children, and helped them to address any social determinants of health” children in the parent mentor group “gained greater healthcare access to preventive care visits, primary care providers, and specialists.”

A January 2020 report by Connecticut Voices for Children pointed out that “Connecticut’s health statistics consistently compare well to other states. Unfortunately, these aggregate statistics mask enormous disparities in health and health care experienced by the state’s residents of color.”

The report went on to offer a series of recommendations to respond to the disparities, concluding that “Connecticut has the infrastructure and resources to reform our health systems so that they address the root causes of racial disparities in health outcomes,” adding that “deliberately targeting health disparities is necessary to the future wellbeing of the state.”

The full impact of the pandemic, and the economic disruptions that resulted, is still unfolding, but indications are that the disparities have worsened due to the severe and widespread impact on the nation’s Latino community.