Obamacare Reduces Racial Disparities

The 2014 implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, has had a promising start in providing health insurance for all Americans. All racial groups have experienced substantial increases in their health insurance coverage. Before the ACA was enacted, people of color were much more likely to be uninsured than Whites. Obamacare has reduced these disparities and has essentially eliminated the difference between the uninsured rates of Asian Americans and Whites and of Black and White children. Yet evidence from Massachusetts’ health insurance reform—a model for the Affordable Care Act—suggests that Obamacare is not going to completely eliminate racial and ethnic inequalities in health insurance coverage. Only a more extensive expansion of government-sponsored health insurance is likely to achieve that goal.