By Kenny Goldberg
Enrollment in Covered California has skyrocketed the last few months, except among people whose primary language is Spanish.
Spanish-speakers make up 29 percent of California’s population. But exchange officials said so far, that group makes up only 5 percent of those who’ve signed up for a plan.
Exchange spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez admitted they should have had a Spanish-language enrollment form out much sooner.
“But of course we did not want to put out an application that was not ready,” she said. “So we needed to do some field testing, and we needed to make sure that we were having those conversations with the folks that would be using it, so it was actually usable.”
The new form can be used to apply for either a Covered California plan or Medi-Cal. It’s available on the Covered California website.
Exchange officials said enrollment assistance is available and added that about 60 percent of the nearly 3,000 certified enrollment counselors statewide speak Spanish. In addition, county eligibility workers who speak Spanish are also available to help.