In recent months, community health advocates have concentrated on finding eligible seniors who have yet to hear about the expansion. Some have appeared on local television and radio news shows to get the word out.
“We know that there are more out there that are eligible but unenrolled,” said Seciah Aquino, acting executive director for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California. “We are working to make sure that numbers can continue growing and that everyone who now has the privilege to access this benefit is able to sign up.”
A focus group study last summer, funded by the California Health Care Foundation, found that about half of Hispanic respondents hadn’t heard about the change. An even smaller share of older Asian immigrants knew about it. Asians make up the second-largest group of California immigrants after Hispanics, who account for almost 40% of the state’s immigrants.
(California Healthline is an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.)
Also feature in: Medical Life Science News and in Kaiser Health News (Spanish).
