Latinx Healthcare Utilization: Before and After ACA Implementation

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a significant piece of healthcare legislation passed in 2010. This paper aims to answer the following research questions: What was the impact of the ACA on access to care for the Latinx population? How did a change in insurance rates impact healthcare utilization rates for the Latinx population? How did US nativity impact access to care for the Latinx population? The analyses conducted to answer these questions used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning five release cycles and ten years, 2007-2016, a data set produced by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) annually. Results indicate that insurance rates and healthcare utilization rates increased for all Latinx individuals post ACA implementation. Analyses on US nativity showed foreign-born individuals rates increased more than US-born individuals, demonstrating the ACA had greater impact on those individuals