El Tiempo Latino
A Working Report · Tiempo Company
The DMV · July 2026

The DMV Is Losing Health Coverage.
Latino Families First.

A national rollback, expired ACA subsidies, Medicaid cuts, new eligibility rules, is landing on the region where nearly 1.8 million Latinos live. Each state absorbs it under its own rules, so we researched all three. What closes the gap is the same everywhere.

Start a conversation Read the state reports
~100K
people lost coverage in Virginia alone this year, and nearly 1 in 4 Maryland Latinos lives uninsured, the region's highest rate. The national rollback is not a distant statistic here. It is landing on Latino families first.
The stakes

A national coverage shock, landing hardest on Latino families.

Enhanced ACA subsidies expired January 1, 2026 and roughly 4 million people dropped marketplace coverage. Federal Medicaid cuts are phasing in behind them, and new non-citizen eligibility rules arrive in October. Every one of those changes lands hardest on the DMV's Latino households, and each state is absorbing it differently.

~1.8M
Latino residents across D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
18.4%
National Latino uninsured rate, 2.8× the White rate. Latinos are 21% of the population, 39% of the uninsured.
Nov 1
Open enrollment for 2027 coverage begins in all three jurisdictions. The window where communication decides who stays covered.
Three states, three reports

The same shock, absorbed three different ways.

Each report covers one state: who is in the gap, what changed this year, and what the evidence says closes it.

Maryland
24.3%
Latino uninsured rate

The highest of any group in the DMV, even after the state grew its own subsidy from 65,000 to 177,000 people. Maryland proves price support alone does not close the gap.

Read the Maryland report
Virginia
~100K
Coverage losses this year

The cliff hit Virginia first and fastest, concentrated among Latino families. A new $150 million state subsidy opens November 1. Whether eligible families find it is the open question.

Read the Virginia report
Washington, D.C.
5.3%
Latino uninsured rate

The lowest in the region. The District proved near-universal Latino coverage is possible. October's federal eligibility rules and redetermination churn now put that gain at risk.

Read the D.C. report
Communication closes the gap

This is the part you can do something about.

For Latino and Spanish-speaking families, how coverage is communicated is one of the strongest predictors of whether they stay covered. The evidence runs both ways, and it holds in all three states.

When outreach was cut, Latinos lost coverage first
−3.5 pts
Coverage drop among Hispanic adults when federal outreach funding was cut, the largest of any group in a peer-reviewed natural experiment.
−3.0 pts
Coverage drop among people who speak a language other than English at home.
−2.4%
Marketplace enrollment drop among lower-income adults after the same cuts.
When it is done well, people stay covered
2×
More likely to enroll with in-person help. Latinos seek that help at far higher rates than White consumers.
254K
Reached in a campaign we ran with a national patient-advocacy nonprofit, explaining health policy in plain Spanish across the DMV.
+37%
Higher engagement for our native, in-language content vs. standard display ads.
Why El Tiempo Latino

The trusted layer in front of the enrollment desk.

We don't run enrollment. We explain what changed, hold attention in Spanish, and point families to where to enroll and get help, in whichever of the three states they live. That is what El Tiempo Latino has done for the DMV for 35 years.

535K
Reachable Latino digital audience across the DMV.
450K
Monthly digital impressions, +8K newsletter subscribers.
~90K
Weekly print readers, 76% "very interested in health issues."
1

We have done this in health, in this region

A Maryland campaign helping Latino families navigate Medicaid and maternal benefits reached 106,000 people. A DMV-wide campaign with a national patient-advocacy nonprofit reached 254,000, explaining health policy in plain Spanish.

2

One partner, three states

Our audience lives across all three jurisdictions, so a single program can carry a message region-wide or adapt it state by state: Maryland's persistent gap, Virginia's new subsidy, D.C.'s eligibility changes.

3

Priced by reach, built for compliance

A targeted program starts around $9,000 for ~400,000 impressions; a month-long campaign reaching a large share of our DMV Latino audience runs low-to-mid five figures. Creative runs through your compliance review, following CMS and carrier guidelines.

Let's start with the data.

Not "do you want to advertise." A conversation about the DMV's Latino coverage divide, what the evidence says closes it, and what that could look like together.

Email Andrea Chacón
andrea@tiempocompany.com