Efforts have been boosted to help to encourage this community to enroll in health plans through the online marketplace.
Agents are finding that while the health insurance exchange in California has been designed to help residents of the state to be able to find the coverage that they need at a price that they can afford, and yet it remains a tough sell for many people.
The primary struggle is in interesting Californians and motivating them to actually take part.
According to some agents, this can be especially challenging in the demographic that includes Latinos in the lower income groups. The reason that this presents a challenge is primarily to do with the fact that these individuals are only just managing to scrape by with their current spending and don’t feel that shopping on the California insurance exchange will be something that they will be able to afford. It has also been pointed out that in some cases, there is a fear that by enrolling in a health plan through Covered California, it could draw attention to undocumented family members who are living with certain residents, and that immigration authorities could then be alerted.
There are a range of barriers that continue to stand in the way of the use of the insurance exchange by this community.
Last month, President Obama made a controversial announcement of a plan to offer temporary legal status to millions of immigrants who are currently living in the country illegally. This has caused many Latinos to boost their hesitation to enroll in health plans through Covered California as there was a tremendous uproar against the president’s announcement.
According to a Salinas public affairs consultant, Maria Bonilla-Giuriato, “They know the president recently signed something, but they hear people say they don’t want them here in our country.” As a result, the Latino community is receiving a “mixed message” and it has therefore not assuaged their fears of enrolling in health insurance through the exchange.
This is presenting a considerable problem for Covered California and its intentions to operate successfully under the Affordable Care Act. By becoming more appealing to the Latino community, it is estimated that it could reach a goal of 500,000 new members through the insurance exchange by the second open enrollment deadline, February 15.