Survey Identifies Barriers to Care for the Rapidly Growing Hispanic Population
About 1 in 5 people living in the U.S. are Hispanic, an increase of 23 percent from 2010 and 2020. By 2060, it is estimated that 1 in 4 Americans will be Hispanic. How well does your health system understand this population’s needs?
// By Jane Weber Brubaker //
If you and your doctor speak the same language, communication is easier. And if you live in certain neighborhoods, have health insurance, and understand how it works, if you have a way to get to your appointments, you have clear advantages.
Miriam Browning-Nance, vice president, WHY, multicultural lead
That situation doesn’t exist for everyone. When a large and rapidly growing slice of the population lacks those advantages, the impact — individually and societally — is great.
A recent survey conducted by the WHY Group, Horizon Media’s center of excellence for cultural insights, shines a spotlight on the barriers to care experienced in greater proportion by the Hispanic population.
“With systemic issues on race and ethnicity, we saw that certain groups were facing unique hurdles, unique challenges at different points along the way,” says Miriam Browning-Nance, vice president, multicultural lead at WHY. “Once we dove into that, we saw that indeed there are unique barriers that the Hispanic community has in common.”
Karina Dobarro, executive vice president, head of multicultural at Horizon Media
The Hispanic population in the U.S., according to the 2020 census, is 63 million, an increase of 23 percent from 2010 and 2020.
Karina Dobarro is executive vice president, head of multicultural at Horizon Media. “We know the Hispanic population is growing,” she says. “We know that reaching them and connecting with them is not only about language, but it’s also about cultural understanding.”
Here, we look at the survey data in WHY Group’s “The Path to Health: Hispanic Deep Dive” report, the implications, and some examples of innovative organizations creating solutions to better serve the Hispanic population’s needs.