Latinos and Obamacare: Not Buying It
Israel Ortega /
Photo credit: Pete Souza
Here’s a poll the White House doesn’t want you to see: In the state of Colorado, 57 percent of Hispanics disapprove of Obamacare. This development is significant for a number of reasons.
First, Hispanics constitute a disproportionate amount of America’s uninsured population, and, thus the intended audience of this grand experiment in government-run health care.
Second, Hispanics are also a young demographic, making up about 65 percent of U.S. millennials, according to Heartland Draws Hispanics. Again, this number is important because, in order to contain costs and premium rates, Obamacare needs young people to sign up in droves.
Finally, the poll may also help explain why Obamcare enrollment numbers have failed to meet enrollment projections. In states with a sizable Hispanic population like California, fewer than 20 percent of applicants identified themselves as Hispanic, according to the latest exchange numbers as reported by CNN.com
Put it all together and these numbers spell trouble for the White House.
It’s also significant that the poll is Left-leaning and covers a group that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama. As reported by The Daily Caller, “Obama took 75 percent of the Hispanic vote in Colorado in the 2012 election, prior to the Obamacare rollout, according to exit polls.”
It’s hard not to see this poll as an important bellwether for what’s happening around the country, as more and more Americans realize that Obamacare is failing to reduce costs, expand consumer choice, or contain the cost of premium hikes. And that’s not even taking into consideration the President’s now-infamous broken promise: That you can keep your health insurance plan and doctor if you like them.
The Libre Initiative, which promotes economic freedom to the Hispanic community, released a statement describing the poll this way:
The Administration has pinned its hopes for this law’s success on enrollments in the Latino community. But people are seeing that premiums and deductibles are too high. They understand that the Latino population – which is much younger than the rest of America – is being called on to bear a disproportionate share of the cost of this new system. They know that this is unfair. For most Latinos – as for most Americans – it’s just not a good deal.