The following piece by Naomi Lopez Bauman was featured in the Washington Times on May 15, 2014. 

Hispanics have the nation’s highest uninsured rate, yet few enrolled for medical coverage under Obamacare. Despite the expenditure of vast sums of money and manpower in targeted Hispanic communities, only one in five of those eligible to purchase plans selected coverage, the data show.

California, which led the nation in overall enrollments, was unable to lure even one-third of its eligible Hispanic population into its state-based Obamacare exchange. This occurred despite aggressive courting through a Spanish-language website, bilingual enrollment counselors, community events at grocery stores in Hispanic neighborhoods and more than $8 million spent on Spanish-language ads from January to March.

That raises a question: With government marketing muscle and tax dollars supporting Hispanic enrollment efforts, why did only a reported 816,000 of the estimated 4.1 million eligible Hispanics — or 20 percent in the 40 states where demographic data is available — bother to enroll?

As a descendent of Mexican immigrants and the child of parents whose first language is Spanish, I am not surprised that the vast majority of Hispanics avoided the Obamacare health-insurance exchanges. In fact, evidence indicates that the Obama administration lost a lot of ground with the Hispanic population.

According to a December 2013 Reason/Rupe poll, 29 percent of Hispanics nationally reported that they liked the law when it passed, but like it less now. When asked whether they would prefer the health care system established by the 2010 federal health care law, or the system in place prior to the change, half expressed a preference for the pre-Obamacare system, while only 40 percent preferred Obamacare.

Seven out of 10 Hispanics opposed requiring younger, healthier people to pay more for their health insurance even if it helps pay for older and less-healthy people. Unfortunately, this is exactly how Obamacare is priced.

The young and healthy, many of whom are uninsured, are not signing up for coverage that might be more expensive than what was previously available, knowing that they can still obtain health care services in an emergency room or pay out-of-pocket for health care when needed.

To understand our cultural attitudes toward health care, one first needs to understand the Hispanic situation.

As a group, we tend to be relatively healthy and rely far less on the formal health care system. Our population is uninsured at a higher rate than whites and blacks, has less education overall, has a higher poverty rate than whites and about the same as blacks, and visits the doctor infrequently. Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we outlive our white and black counterparts. While coverage is desirable, we see clear distinctions between health care access and health care coverage.

This is where Obamacare is particularly unattractive for many of us. Since we are less likely to visit the doctor, when we do, we have very high expectations of service and of personally connecting with our doctors and providers. Many of the plans available from the Obamacare exchanges, however — particularly the lower-cost options — provide a very narrow networks of providers.

The low Hispanic enrollment likely has a lot to do with the product. For example, health plans with mandated benefits that drive up the cost of coverage don’t necessarily meet the needs and preferences of many Hispanics.

Mental health benefits required under Obamacare provide a good example: Hispanics are far less likely than other groups to utilize mental health services. More typically, extended family, churches and other community members — “civil society” institutions — are sought out for support.

While a higher general mistrust of government and a cultural preference for less-formal health care arrangements are factors, Hispanics are giving the president’s signature health law an increasingly lukewarm reception.

Costly advertising cannot change that reality.

Hispanics, like everyone else, need a wide array of choices that give us control over our health care decisions. With such choices, Hispanics will be more likely to find plans that reflect their cultural preferences and economic needs.

As it stands now, the high-cost, narrow-choice, mandate-heavy plans of Obamacare fail to deliver.