Dolores Huerta urges Latinos to enroll in health coverage

Latinos in California have until the end of January to sign up for comprehensive coverage and lower costs through Cover California’s open enrollment period.

“We only have a couple of weeks left, about 2½ weeks left, to get enrolled in Covered California,” said Dolores Huerta, who has promoted equality and justice. “We know that this is so crucial. Not only do we get the health care coverage that we need, but there’s a lot of preventative healthcare also so that we can know if there something wrong with us to begin with.”

California has made more progress in reducing the uninsured rate across all major ethnic groups and communities of color than any other states in the country.

The uninsured rate among Latinos has been cut by more than half from 20.5% in 2013 to 9.7% in 2019.

“2013, one out of every five Latinos were uninsured. We cut that figure in half,” said Peter V. Lee, executive director for Covered California during a zoom press conference to promote the final weeks of open enrollment for 2022. “We’ve made a lot of progress, but there’s still more work ahead of us.”

Even though Latinos have seen the biggest drop in uninsured percentage points since 2013, Lee said as of 2020 Latinos are still the most likely part of Californians to be uninsured.

Lee said Covered California saw a 34% increase in Latino enrollment from 2020 to 2022, an increase of more than 100,000 people.

Urging the Latino community to get out there and get healthcare coverage, Huerta said “we know that we are very vulnerable, the pandemic has shown us.”

“And we know that we need to be able to take care of some of these underlying causes that will make us more vulnerable to all of these other diseases like COVID, for instance,” said Huerta.

Huerta’s leadership has been so vital in many fronts, including work in recent years to make sure Latinos and all Californians get vaccinated, get covered and stay healthy.

The civil rights leader has been a partner of Covered California since day one when it launched in 2014, helping urge Californians to get covered.

“Now thanks to the American Rescue Plan and the state of California that we know that all of the Latinos here can get some kind of coverage,” Huerta said.

Covered California announced Wednesday morning that it started 2022 with more than 1.7 million people who have either renewed their coverage or signed up during open enrollment to have their coverage start on Jan. 1.

“More people than ever before are gaining access to truly affordable coverage across the entire nation. And in California, where we are seeing record high enrollment,” Lee said.

Lee said California saw an increase of more than 350,000 people who have enrolled in coverage compared to where Covered California was at the beginning of 2020 before the COVID pandemic impacted healthcare and coverage.

The increase is due to Covered California reaching out to everyone eligible and promoting enrollment and the federal law American rescue plan, which dramatically lowered health care costs for all of 2022 and helped millions have lower cost in 2021.

“This work builds on what California did in 2020 when the governor of California, Gov. Newsom and the Legislature established a state subsidy program that provided more financial help with state dollars that included for the first time, financial help for many middle-income families who were previously ineligible for help under the Affordable Care Act,” Lee said.

With the federal government expanding federal financial assistance, in California, nearly two out of three of enrollees can get coverage from a brand name plan for $10 or less a month, Lee said.

“The pandemic has reminded us of all that not only does everyone need quality care, but part too often, the lack of insurance coverage is a key driver in healthcare disparity,” Lee said.

To enroll or for more information visit coveredca.com

Covered California enrollment period ends Jan. 31.