Obamacare narrowed racial and ethnic gaps in access to health insurance and care, but it didn’t eliminate them, a new study reports.University of Michigan researchers analyzed data gathered from 19- to 64-year-olds nationwide between 2008 and 2017. They found that before Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance programs went into effect in 2010, nearly 25% of blacks and 40% of Hispanics in this age group didn’t have health insurance, compared with 15% of whites.Between 2013 and 2017, however, the insurance gap between blacks and whites narrowed 45%, and that between Hispanics and whites narrowed 35%.In states that expanded Medicaid, the insurance gap between whites and blacks closed completely when population differences were taken into account, researchers said.By 2017, however, more than 27 million Americans in the age group studied still lacked health insurance, including 14% of blacks, 25% of Hispanics and 8.5% of whites.”This is a glass half-full, glass half-empty story,” said study co-author Thomas Buchmueller, a professor of business economics and public policy.

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