Trump Administration Abandons Hispanic Outreach on ACA

As part of the Trump Administration's ongoing efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services has now abandoned outreach and education campaigns specifically aimed at helping millions of Latinos sign up for health insurance. From Talking Points Memo:

“Since Obamacare’s exchanges launched in 2014, a massive amount of work happened behind the scenes to spread the word to millions of uninsured Latinos so they could take advantage of the new coverage and to convince enough people to sign up to keep the insurance markets afloat.”

“Steven Lopez, the associate director of health policy at Unidos, told TPM that all this effort was necessary to reach a historically underserved demographic.”

“In particular, Lopez said, the line of communication the groups had with the federal government was ‘incredibly important.’”

“4 million Latino adults have gained coverage since the launch of the Affordable Care Act, and the Latino uninsured rate has dropped faster than that of any other ethnic group.”

“Ann Marie Benitez, the senior director of government relations for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, described a similar drop off.”

“‘We would normally be having sessions by now about what worked and didn’t work in terms of strategy last year to start preparing for this year’s open enrollment,’ she said. ‘But I haven’t heard anything in regards to enrollment from HHS or the White House, and the group hasn’t met at all since the new administration has come on board.’”

“Several of the organizations also confirmed to TPM that a newsletter called ‘Get Covered’ that the partner groups used to receive regularly with information on open enrollment promotion strategies has ceased.”

“‘People were already asking in January if they should still enroll,’ she said. ‘People are most likely even more confused now.’”