Summary
The article by Frerichs et al. (2019) is dedicated to analyzing the role of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the changes in health insurance of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Frerichs et al. (2019) use data provided by the American Community Survey from 2008 to 2016 and apply multivariate regression to examine whether the ACA reduced the number of uninsured people. The research conducted by Frerichs et al. (2019) shows that by 2016, more people had healthcare insurance coverage. Nonetheless, to a large extent, the changes were provoked by Medicaid Expansion. Consequently, American Indians and Alaska Natives still face inequality in the healthcare sphere compared with the rest of the American population. This article will be used in the paper to show that the ACA is flawed because it fails to solve the previously described problem and requires further improvements.
In their article, Park et al. (2019) compare private insurance and Medicaid in terms of providing healthcare to Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. The authors found that in Medicaid non-expansion states, private insurance was more attractive to the mentioned population, which means that it can serve as an alternative to Medicaid. These findings suggest that the access to healthcare is limited by a citizenship or language status, unwillingness to enroll in Medicaid, and a lack of cultural services. Park et al. (2019) state that private insurance for minority groups is characterized by improvements in insurance coverage, which is an opportunity to provide healthcare to more people, including preventive and treatment services. Accordingly, it can be suggested that other minority groups that face challenges with accessing healthcare can also benefit from private insurance promotion. Nevertheless, further studies are necessary to research the best ways to provide insurance coverage.
Reference
Frerichs, L., Bell, R., Lich, K. H., Reuland, D., & Warne, D. K. (2019). Health insurance coverage among American Indians and Alaska Natives in the context of the Affordable Care Act. Ethnicity & Health, 1-16. Web.
Park, J. J., Sommers, B. D., Humble, S., Epstein, A. M., Colditz, G. A., & Koh, H. K. (2019). Medicaid and private insurance coverage for low-income Asian Americans, native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, 2010–16. Health Affairs, 38(11), 1911-1917. Web.