KANSAS CITY, Kan. — In just one week, the health insurance marketplace opens up to the public under the Affordable Care Act. All uninsured people will then have an opportunity to shop for health insurance. One group that the government is hoping to attract in huge numbers is Hispanics. Some 30 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. currently do not have health insurance, the highest rate among all minority groups. So organizations in the metro are gearing up now to spread the word about the health insurance marketplace.
Lorena Holguin says a lot of people call El Centro asking about the health care exchange, what it means and how they sign up. But since Holguin only works here part time, she doesn’t even have insurance.
“It’s expensive, more than we can afford to pay,” she said.
But she has been looking into it now.
“You’ll get a fine for not getting insurance,” she said, “that’s when I got like, ‘I need to get insurance.'”
El Centro says it spent all summer doing outreach to the Hispanic population in Kansas City, educating people about health insurance and that they need to shop for it just like they would shop at any store: budget for it and compare prices.
“A lot of folks who never had insurance had medical issues, just go to emergency room,” says Cielo Fernandez with El Centro. “Now they need to understand it’s to their benefit to have insurance.”
In addition to outreach, the government has approved El Centro to have bilingual counselors on site to help people sort through the options.
“So the thought process is we’ll be able to help people who come in the door,” said Irene Caudillo with El Centro, “help them understand what it all means and help them enroll into the marketplace.”
El Centro’s biggest outreach push will come in mid-October at the healthy families fair. They say it’s very popular, and for hundreds of people it’s the only time they see a doctor all year. So El Centro says this will be their big push to have people meet with navigators so they can look into whether they are eligible for the exchange and even help them enroll.
It’s called the Celebrating Healthy Families fair:
October 12th
Memorial Hall
600 N. 7th Street
Kansas City, Kan.
9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
It includes screenings for everything form diabetes and blood pressure to vision and dental exams. Contact Maribel Guzman at 913-831-2200.
