Can’t Buy Me Health-Care Access: Qualitative Experiences of U.S.-Born Latinx Adults’ Health Insurance Coverage and Health-Care Use Post ACA

Latinx persons have lower levels of health insurance coverage than other racial and ethnic groups even after passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Using 182 interviews from the American Voices Project, this study examines how U.S.-born Latinx adults experience health-care coverage and health-care use. Interview data demonstrate that health-care access is insufficient to ensure full health-care use. Health-care use costs are so high that they are insurmountable for Latinx Americans. Wealth and liquid assets constrain and are constrained by health-care use. Family members become a safety net. This study can inform policies and programs aiming to improve equity in Latinx individuals’ health-care access by centering the importance of reducing economic costs of health-care use.