Accessible and Affordable Health Care
COMPREHENSIVE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE SERVICES THAT ARE AVAILABLE AND
AFFORDABLE FOR ALL
Minnesota acknowledges that systemic racism and generational structural (social, economic, political
and environmental) inequities result in poor health outcomes. These inequities have a greater influence
on health outcomes than individual choices or one’s ability to access health care, and not all
communities are impacted the same way. All people living in Minnesota benefit when we reduce health
disparities and advance racial equity.
Current Landscape of Accessible and Affordable Health Care in Minnesota
Comprehensive, quality health care services are important for promoting and maintaining health
throughout the lifespan. Access to health care is impacted by household finances, insurance coverage,
geographic availability, and timeliness of entry into services. Poor access to health care services can
result in unmet health needs, lack of preventive services, hospitalization, and increased financial
burden.
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Equally as important as access is the alarming rising costs of health care.
Around 264,000 Minnesotans (4.7%) lacked health insurance coverage in 2019, according to the most
recent Minnesota Health Access Survey. The maintained high rates of coverage in 2019 were consistent
with levels experienced after the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Minnesota in 2014 –
95.3 percent of Minnesotans had health insurance coverage that year. Compared to 2017, coverage in
the state was significantly higher, likely because of Minnesota’s the strong economy and job market, as
well as by provisions enacted by the Minnesota Legislature to help stabilize the individual health
insurance market. Despite relativity high levels of insurance coverage historical disparities in coverage
experienced by certain groups persisted in 2019. People of color and American Indians are around 2
times more likely to be uninsurance than White people living in Minnesota. Systemic racism creates
barriers to accessing health insurance.
As a result of an unfair and unjust health insurance system, the uninsured were more likely to be a
person of color or American Indian, a young adult (age 18 to 34), in a lower income bracket, or have a
high school education or less.
The highest proportion of Minnesotans without insurance live in rural areas in the northern regions of
the state. Minnesotans living in rural areas experience more barriers to accessing health care as a result
of decreased geographic access and health provider shortages. In 2017, there were 121 Health
Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) in Minnesota and 97 Medically Underserved Areas (MUA).
The cost of health
care adversely affects families of CYSHN with 17.5 percent of these families struggling to pay for a child’s
medical bills compared to 10 percent of families without CYSHN.
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The difference may seem small but
taken into consideration with the increased likelihood of parents of CYSHN to have to cut back their
work hours or stop working altogether to provide care for their child, the disparities in access to and
cost of health care can have a significant impact on families and their household income.