Becerra touts increasing minority ACA coverage

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday visited Houston to shed light on a recent rise in Affordable Care Act insurance coverage in the Black and Latino population nationwide, and to encourage Texans to find a health plan when open enrollment starts Nov. 1.

A new federal analysis, released Tuesday, shows 1.3 million Black people and 2.6 million Latino people enrolled in health coverage through HealthCare.gov during the 2022 open enrollment period, representing a 49 percent and 53 percent increase, respectively, going back to 2020.

But the data does not go into greater detail about states and counties, and it remains to be seen how the recent increase will affect the uninsured rate in Texas, consistently ranked as the worst in the nation.

In 2020, census data shows about 17 percent of the Texas population did not have health insurance, more than double the national rate. Harris County was even worse, with 20 percent of the population going without health insurance that year. Texas is one of 12 states that have declined to expand Medicaid eligibility, to include families whose household income is at or below 138 percent of the poverty level, or roughly $38,000 per year for a family of four.

“If Texas were

Medicaid, we’d have the largest number of Americans getting enrolled, getting access to health care immediately,” Becerra said during a press conference at a Legacy Community Health clinic in the predominantly Latino Northside Village neighborhood.

Becerra, a former lawyer, last year became the first Latino to oversee the federal health agency and has pushed his goals of expanding health access and equity. The federal report released Tuesday attributed the growth of marketplace coverage partly to a boost in federal funding for outreach and education. The Biden administration also has said the American Rescue Plan Act helped bring ACA premiums to an all-time low and enrollment to an all-time high.

At Legacy, Becerra joined U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who said she had pleaded for the HHS secretary to visit her district, as well as other community health leaders in a panel on health insurance coverage.

He also visited MD Anderson Cancer Center later in the afternoon to discuss President Joe Biden’s goal of reducing cancer death rates by at least 50 percent over the next quarter century, and improving the experience of living with cancer.

One of the panelists at Legacy, Shawn Kingsley, spoke to the rise in ACA enrollment among people who had been covered through private insurance. A professional chef, Kingsley previously had coverage through Cigna; when that ended, he enrolled in a plan through the marketplace with the help of Legacy Community Health. He said the coverage helped him get his blood sugar levels under control.

“I can’t say enough about how important it is that we extend health care to everyone,” he said.

Vicki Carruthers-Hall, owner of Discovery Schoolhouse, which offers educational programs for children up to 5 years old, said Change Happens works with her employees every November to help them find the right insurance plan through the marketplace. They often compete with each other to see who enrolls in the cheapest plan.

The coverage helped one teacher survive a battle with ovarian cancer, she said. Carruthers-Hall herself is enrolled in an ACA plan.

“In the past, as self-employed people, you might be able to go find a United Healthcare plan,” she said. “You might be able to find whatever you want. But now, we too have to go on HealthCare.gov.”