In Texas, where Latinos account for nearly two-thirds of the more than 6 million Texans without health insurance, advocates are developing community-based strategies to ensure that Latinos do not miss out on insurance options available through the Affordable Care Act.
Since the Oct. 1 rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Latinos will continue to play a critical role for the administration to meet its policy goals, since the 10.2 million currently uninsured Latinos are expected to be positively impacted by the sweeping changes that the new law proposes.
Frank Rodriguez, Executive Director and Founder of the Latino Health Care Forum, believes that reliance on “promotoras”- health counselors- is a vehicle that will allow them to reach more than 50,000 uninsured individuals in the Austin area within the next sixth months.
“Just being bilingual isn’t enough…what we are doing is recruiting people from the community that know the norms and the customs of the people,” said Rodriguez.
Advocates have pointed that a sense of trust is pivotal in reaching to Latinos. Limited access to computers, lack of e-mail addresses, and misinformation, continue to act as major barriers in getting Latinos registered.
“The Latino community likes to have that face-to face conversation when they are buying something as important as health care,” said Arturo Aguila, an Organizer for Border Interfaith in El Paso, which has already held seven events to educate nearly 500 people, on the Affordable Care Act.
Recent Comments