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junio 11, 2015

MNHC Outreach and Enrollment Team: Getting Latinos Health Coverage

The passage of the Affordable Care Act gave thousands of uninsured individuals and families the opportunity to find affordable insurance. However, many Latino residents around the nation remain uninsured. In California, 46% of Latino residents were eligible for insurance subsidies, but only 31% of Covered California enrollees were Latino during first open enrollment in 2014.[i]

Mission Neighborhood Health Center anticipated the need for our community and established the Outreach Enrollment Team in 2013. Our outreach team is composed of Luis Cortez, Outreach Enrollment Team Supervisor, Lizbeth Mendoza, Enrollment Specialist and Marta Madrigal, Family Outreach and Enrollment Specialist.

The outreach team’s goal is to assist uninsured Latino families and the community at large to enroll in Medi-Cal and other eligible medical coverage. “When we first started, we did not have all the answers. It was a learning process for both ourselves and the community”, explained Luis. Undeniably, the process of enrolling into health insurance through Covered CA had many bumps along the way. Our outreach team encountered many family members with different situations for which there were no clear answers.   During the first open enrollment period MNHC enrollment staff was available evenings and Saturdays to respond to the high need for assistance from the San Francisco Latino community to obtain medical coverage.

“One of our challenges was telling people why health insurance was important.  Many were hesitant to leave Healthy San Francisco,” said Luis. The Outreach team, along with enrolling families into insurance, actively educates the Latino community about the myths and benefits of obtaining coverage from Covered CA. Many of our families face barriers in language, reading skills, previous ineligibility and misconceptions that discourage them from applying for coverage that they or their family members may qualify for. Without the help of our outreach team, many immigrant Latino families in San Francisco would remain without access to health insurance.

The efforts of our outreach team have not gone unnoticed. With the help of our 12 Covered CA Enrollment Counselors, a total of 10,120 people were assisted and 829 MNHC patients were enrolled in the Medi-Cal Expansion. Our number of uninsured patients dropped from 45% in 2013 to 38% in 2014.

Presently, the outreach team just finished assisting community members to re-enroll in insurance during the Covered CA 2015 open enrollment.   The team continues to outreach and educate families about the importance of obtaining medical coverage. With the combined efforts of the Outreach team and MNHC, we hope to decrease the number of uninsured families in our community.

“It’s so fulfilling when we make an impacting change in the lives of the community we serve. The health and well-being of our low-income families are important. We take care of them”.

[i] http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2014/12/15/covered-california-focusing-efforts-on-uninsured-latinos

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