There has been much debate related to health care reform both before President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law, and after its historic passage.
An October 2011 poll released by impreMedia and Latino Decisions (IM-LD) in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico indicates that Latinos are generally supportive of the major elements of the ACA, while uncertainties regarding implementation and recent experiences with health coverage loss and increased health care costs have weakened Latino’s optimism that the law will succeed in its goals. One of the goals of the survey was to gather information about the economic well-being of the Latino population and their perceptions regarding the costs of health care in the heart of the economic recession.
Respondents were asked how their families’ financial situation has fared over the past year. While a large segment (43%) of the Latino population reports that they are doing “about the same” financially as they were a year ago, a comparable segment (39%) stated that they were doing “worse off.”
The survey also reveals that the majority (52%) of Latino families report that the costs of health care, including insurance, have “gone up” over the past year. In addition to recognizing that health care costs have risen, the survey also reveals that the economic recession has resulted in many Latino families losing access to health insurance over the past couple of years.
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