The Affordable Care Act Of The United States - 1607 Words

Hispanics are one of the largest groups in the United States that are uninsured. Additionally, the Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S. The Hispanic population is estimated to increase over the next 25 years to 32 million out of a total of 72 million of the US population (Brice, 2000). The U.S. health care system is facing one of its most notable societal issues in years in reference to its ability to provide access to medical care for the millions of Americans who do not have health care, for whatever cause. The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, for the purpose of reducing inequalities in insurance coverage and to provide access to health care for all. A vital goal of the†¦show more content†¦The language barrier is a glaring problem for Hispanics in terms of accessing health care coverage for several reasons. Hispanics have far fewer Spanish speaking support systems to navigate them through the complex sy stem that will provide them access to health care. In addition, demographically speaking, it is going to be harder for the Hispanic population to access a provider that is fluent in their language. While interpreters are sometimes available for the Spanish speaking population, they may be reluctant to use them. Primarily they may be worried that the translation will not be accurately reported to the health care provider as they don’t know what is being said in the English portion of the translation. Another possible barrier to translation is that perhaps the individual has a medical issue they do not want shared with a stranger who is not the medical provider specifically (Maxwell et al., 2011). Therefore, these issues could possibly create more barriers to quality care. Although the Affordable Care Act has increased health care coverage for low-income, uninsured Hispanics with the expansions of Medicaid, as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, this remains to be a sta te option. Studies show an estimated 95% of uninsured Latinos would qualify for Medicaid