At the time of writing, eighteen months since the beginning of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the United States leads the total number of deaths worldwide, significantly ahead of Brazil and Mexico, the second and fourth countries in terms of Covid-19 mortality rates. Few populations within the US have been as affected as Latinxs population, who represent 18 per cent of Americans, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accounted for 29.1 per cent of its confirmed cases as of May 2021. These disparities were not the result of the behaviour of Latinx communities, but of decades of systemic denial of opportunities for advancement such as access to quality health care and education, fair wages or affordable housing.

Latinxs are the largest minoritized group in the US at 60.6 million people. Half of US Latinxs live in the four states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and California. The rest are dispersed across traditional destinations in southern states, especially Florida, and in the northeastern states of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. While the concentration of Latinxs is smaller in destinations such as Georgia, North Carolina and the Dakotas, these ‘new destinations’ have experienced the fastest growth of Latinx immigrants in the 2010s. If projections are accurate, one in three, or 111 million Americans will be of Latinx descent by 2060. Given this statistic, we would argue that the advancement of Latinxs is one of the most under-recognized opportunities across American society. Before we discuss the medical, political and social implications of this projection with respect to the US health care system, it is useful to clarify some frequently asked questions about who Latinxs are in the US, what characterizes this diverse population, and how this impacts their health care access.

Barriers to Health Care for US Latinx

Heterogeneity is a defining characteristic of the Latinx population, as it is comprised of people from a myriad of countries that have multiple socioeconomic, racial, religious and educational backgrounds. To homogenize this distinct population, the US Congress passed in 1976 the only law in US history, Public Law 94-311, that defines an ethnic group, Hispanics, as individuals of Spanish origin or descent. Since then, the US Office of Management and Budget identifies Latinxs as individuals who are of ‘Hispanic, Latino/a or Spanish origin’, regardless of race.