Obamacare 2014: Why Aren't Latinos Signing Up For Affordable Care Act? 3 Reasons Why They're Wary

If you've been following the news, then Obamacare should not be an unfamiliar term. But if you haven't, and are somewhat aware of this Mar. 31st deadline, then know that "Obamacare" is a nickname for the 2,572-page long bill passed in 2010 by President Barack Obama called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

According to the bill, almost every American will be required to be enrolled in a healthcare plan, and will have to prove their enrollment in annual tax returns. Failing to be enrolled in a plan will result in a penalty, the rate of which will increase over the next few years.

The deadline for signing up for a plan is approaching quickly (Mar. 31) and the Obama administration has gone on record to say it will be relatively flexible about the deadline. Specifically, the administration has announced that those who start their application on Monday, Mar. 31 will be given the opportunity for an extension until mid-April.

“We are . . . making sure that we will be ready to help consumers who may be in line by the deadline to complete enrollment — either online or over the phone,” said Julie Bataille, director of the office of communications for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency overseeing the federal health-care exchange, according to the Washington Post.

For the Latino community; however, things are a bit more convoluted and the complications have one result: Latinos are not signing up for healthcare. Consider this: a Gallup survey found that the decline in uninsured Hispanics was a mere 0.8 percent.

What exactly is holding back the Latino community? There are a variety of reasons that could be playing a role in the decision to not sign up for healthcare and face the potential fine. Here are three reasons why Latinos are not signing up:

1. Undocumented immigrants, and to an extent, illegal immigrants as well, are left out of the healthcare bill as it is clear that undocumented immigrants cannot benefit from law (and neither can the "dreamers"). The paradigm of the law inherently excludes a portion of the Latino population in the United States.

2. Even those who are documented immigrants have the fear that signing up would allow the government to pry in their lives. That, coupled with the fact that 2 million immigrants have been deported during the past five years of Obama's presidency, leaves many Latinos concerned about signing up.

“The threat of deportation is real, and … that risk is too great for many people,” said Marisol Franco, director of policy at California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, which is part of the Latino Obamacare recruitment effort, to Yahoo News. “It really is a disincentive for people to apply for coverage and for people to just decide, you know what, maybe we’ll just pay the penalty.”

3. The Obamacare website faced some major technical difficulties when they rolled out the Healthcare.gov website last fall, and the federal government's Spanish-language enrollment site was not immune to technical problems. What's more, CuidadoDeSalud.gov also has some questionable translations that make understanding the content clear. According to the Pew Research Center, three of five Latinos were in support of the new healthcare reform but that rate plummeted in October after technical problems plagued the rollout of the HealthCare.gov website.