By Suzanne Gamboa - NBC News
SAN ANTONIO, Texas.
- Larisa Alvarado, 36, was afraid she was infected with coronavirus when she woke up last week.
My leg felt itchy and ache that later turned into swelling.
He began to have a fever and felt nauseous.
A friend and poison control expert suggested that his symptoms might be due to a spider bite and advised him to see a doctor.
But before going to an emergency clinic, Alvarado asked about the cost of the visit and the medicine they would likely prescribe.
I wanted to know if I was going to be able to pay them.
That is because Alvarado does not have health insurance.
She lost her job as a patient resource specialist at the American Cancer Society after the organization's fundraising was hit by the pandemic.
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Alvarado is just one of 11.2 million Latinos in the United States who do not have health insurance
.
In 2019, nearly 17% of Hispanics were without health coverage, the highest of any other group.
And that was before the pandemic, a figure already higher than the 10.22 million in 2016.
Now experts say that figure is very likely to be even higher, due to the disproportionate blow the community is receiving from the health crisis.
Ensuring that people have health coverage has become an even more difficult task as they become unemployed and lose medical benefits, explained Joe Ibarra, co-chair of EnrollSA, a coalition of organizations trying to boost insurance enrollment in the area. of San Antonio.
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“In Texas, there is no expanded Medicaid [US Government health insurance program for people in need].
The rules are really tough.
People are losing coverage by losing their jobs and running out of options, "Ibarra told NBC News, our sister network.
Latinos gained the most when the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010. By 2016, some
four million adults and 600,000 children obtained health coverage through this law
.
[For the first time since Obamacare was passed, fewer Americans have health insurance]
Now that more people are losing their health insurance, the cost and availability of insurance are critical issues for Hispanics this election year.
For Latinos this comes before jobs and the economy, and they give it more importance than in 2016.
“Latinos are going to the polls with health care and their experience with the pandemic on the head,
and they are going to vote for a change for their health and well-being,” said Alberto González, senior public policy strategist at UnidosUS, an organization Latina Civil Rights.
At the start of the election cycle, the Republican Party pointed to historically low unemployment rates for Latinos as a reason to re-elect Trump.
Democrats responded that Hispanics were not financially stable if many had to have several jobs to make ends meet.
But the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on Latinos has forced us to rethink and analyze the gaps in health coverage, especially in states like Texas with a huge Hispanic population.
Fear of the coronavirus without health insurance
Before Alvarado lost her job, she was already cutting back on treatments for her health, and had given up on therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome to save on expenses.
Now, without health insurance, he cannot afford COBRA, the temporary health coverage that usually requires full payment of the premium, and he is not poor enough to qualify for government assistance.
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Alvarado, who had moved to the mainland from Puerto Rico in 2009 during the Great Recession, said she is grateful to have a mortgage that allows her to stop paying.
If you were renting, you wouldn't have had the money to see a doctor or get prescribed antibiotics.
But Alvarado fears that if he doesn't get a job he will soon have to sell his house.
"I don't know when this is going to stop," he said.
Hispanics have been hit physically and economically by the pandemic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
coronavirus cases are 2.8 times higher for Latinos than for non-Hispanic whites.
Hospitalizations are 4.6 times higher and Latino deaths are 1.1 times higher than those of non-Hispanic whites.
By October 10, 3.6 million Texans had lost their jobs
.
Ibarra estimates that some 700,000 also lost their health insurance, although there are no official figures.
Ibarra, manager of the CentroMed health clinics in San Antonio, oversees the counselors who enroll people in Obamacare.
He said that many people who come to them after losing their jobs are trying to maintain their insurance coverage in the midst of a pandemic.
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Some parents wanted to make sure their son, who is in a soccer league, is covered in case he is exposed to the coronavirus.
"For these people, they don't want to try to live a normal life knowing that they don't have health coverage," Ibarra said.
"Leading a normal life means they may need expensive care," he recalled.
Alvarado said he already voted for Joe Biden, but he would like a candidate to bring to the United States what many countries already have: universal health care and a minimum wage “other than $ 7.25 an hour while executive salaries go up. ".
Worried about losing Obamacare
Trump's plan is to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a new plan that he has not detailed, though he has vowed to cut drug prices and insurance premiums.
A recent UnidosUS survey of Hispanics showed that nearly 6 in 10 (59%) respondents were very concerned and another 39% were somewhat concerned that the Supreme Court would overturn the Affordable Care Act.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading a lawsuit that could end Obamacare.
The chances are believed to be higher following the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, to her position.
Barrett has been critical of this health law.
["This disease comes in like a thief": this is the impact of COVID-19 among Latinos in Texas]
To justify why Obamacare should be eliminated, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, argued that family premiums had increased by $ 7,967 annually, but an Associated Press verification revealed that he is wrong: That increase occurred over the course of more. 11 years for insurance under an employer, not under Obamacare.
Teri Castillo, a 28-year-old substitute teacher, has been active with the Texas Organizing Project trying to get the state to expand Medicaid so more people can have access.
Now she herself is in need of a safety net that covers her health.
Castillo had health coverage through her husband, but he had to leave his job for health reasons and that left them without those benefits.
Fortunately, both found work thanks to these presidential elections.
He is going door to door encouraging people to vote and she is doing the same but calling them on the phone.
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Castillo said that she and her husband are living much more cautiously and trying to eat healthier.
They don't want to have an accident or develop an illness that brings them huge medical bills.
"It is overwhelming to be without health coverage," he
said.
“It's scary because medical bills are not a joke.
Not even with a full-time job we would have been able to pay it, and without one, less.
How are we going to pay those bills if we end up in the hospital? "
A translation by Pelayo Escandón.