State Health Equity Initiatives Confront Decades of Racism within the Insurance Industry

By Jalisa Clark and Christine Monahan

As one other Marketplace Open Enrollment Period begins, hundreds of thousands of Americans will flip to insurance coverage brokers to information them to reasonably priced and complete insurance policy. However, a 2022 survey exhibits that the inhabitants brokers serve is overwhelmingly white; almost half of medical health insurance brokers self-reported that their shopper base is comprised of 5 p.c or fewer Black shoppers, whereas 70 p.c reported a shopper base with 5 p.c or fewer Asian shoppers and 43 p.c reported serving 5 p.c or fewer Hispanic shoppers. The composition of the dealer occupation is majority white as nicely. Currently, each nonwhite racial group is underrepresented within the dealer business. For instance, regardless of comprising 13.5 p.c of the U.S. inhabitants, Black people account for solely 9.3 p.c of all brokers.

Underrepresentation of each brokers and shoppers of colour might be partly attributed to the historical past of racial discrimination and exclusion within the insurance coverage business. From Nineteenth-century Jim Crow discriminatory insurance policies to the proliferation of algorithmic racism, the insurance coverage business designed insurance policies to disclaim, overcharge, and exclude individuals of colour.

In a new put up for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point weblog, CHIR’s Jalisa Clark and Christine Monahan describe the historic origins of present disparities within the dealer occupation and focus on how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces are intervening. The authors spotlight state-based Marketplace efforts to foster the event of extra brokers of colour and guarantee brokers are equitably serving the varied populations of their state. You can learn the total put up right here.