In an effort to encourage uninsured people to consider getting a health care plan, the head of California health insurance exchange toured Los Angeles by bus Sunday, trying to publicize the Affordable Care Act's benefits among Southern Californians. Many of the residents are said to be Latino and most of them have failed to take advantage of the law.
As reported in LA Times, on the first day of this year's open enrolment period for federally subsidized health plans, officials arrived in East Los Angeles on Sunday to start its overarching strategy to boost enrolment in the third year of the state-run marketplace called Covered California. The tour's first stop at the non profit care provider AltaMed Health Services in East L.A. is just one of the many stop on a state wide bus tour that began on Friday.
Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said in an interview, "Success for the Affordable Care Act is about success with the Latino community." Lee said that more than 40 percent of uninsured state residents eligible for subsidies are likely to be Latino.
More so, state officials are focused to get the estimated 750,000 residents who are eligible for Covered California subsidies to sign up for coverage.
it is important to note that this figure does not include the 1.4 million uninsured Californians eligible for health insurance under Medi-Cal, this is the state's Medicaid program for the poor. There is also an additional 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who have no health insurance and are not eligible for state or federal programs.
The state insurance marketplace has failed to reach its goal of enrolling 1.7 million residents last year. About 9 in 10 current members of Covered California are receiving some form of financial assistance. Of the 1.3 million current members of the Covered California, 200,000 enrolees pay less than $50 a month because of subsidies.
This initiative hopes to add around 295,000 to 450,000 new members this year. The officials are positive that the problem has been largely solved and the awareness about Covered California is spreading among Latinos through Spanish-language media, friends and family members who have signed up for insurance.
