Health insurance

The U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that the percentage of people without health insurance climbed to 15.8 percent in 2006, up from 15.3 percent in 2005. The number of people without health insurance increased to 47 million, an increase of 2 million during the past year.

We are wondering whether the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. is having an effect. About 34 percent of Hispanics do without health insurance, the highest of any ethnic group.

As our books, The Whole Enchilada and Marketing to American Latinos: A Guide to the In-Culture Approach, Part II explain, many Hispanics are used to self-medicating or having their moms give them over-the-counter drugs. Many drugs that are available only by prescription in the U.S. are available in Mexico without a doctor's order. In addition, a large proportion of the Mexican population lives close enough to the border that they can seek medical and dental care in Mexico. Since few U.S. health insurers will cover health care in Mexico, these residents may feel that health insurance is not useful.

A Los Angeles employer of several Hispanics tells us that given a choice between more wages and health insurance, her employees always prefer a wage hike. These are all people who are legally working in the U.S., but they prefer to go to Mexico for their health care.

It is possible we are in a period of transition where U.S. Hispanics need to learn to trust the U.S. health care system and U.S. healthcare providers need to employ more Spanish speakers in order to give Hispanics the level of comfort they need to use our system. It is also possible that U.S. health insurance companies need to make more of an effort to fashion policies that will meet the needs of Hispanics and then to market those policies more effectively.