More than 15 million residents, approximately 40 percent of Californians, are left without Medi-Cal, lose their free or low-cost health coverage for non-renewal, a process that faces language problems, access to information and difficulty in contact the interested parties, showing an unfavorable scenario that would leave millions of people without medical protection.
The state health insurance program Medi-Cal, generally reviews the eligibility of members every year, but that process was stopped during the pandemic by order of the federal government, however it was resumed in the spring asking people to renew to continue their medical service, with a period of 90 days as of July 1.
Most of those who lost their Medi-Cal did not renew even if they are candidates for the service, with misinformation being the most worrying problem. Given this, Ethnic Media Services organized a press conference with staff from California Department of Health Services and covered california, as well as some organizations involved, in order to support people who have not yet renewed.
Yingjia Huang, deputy director of health benefits and eligibility at the Department of Health Services, spoke about the measures being taken to support those who need to renew.
In this sense, he explained that in California 21 percent of the default members have disaffiliated, because they have not returned the yellow envelope package that they are sent. There are already approximately 225,000 people who have not renewed, but they have until September 30 to send the envelope and process their renewal without problems.
Those who can no longer renew have some alternatives so that they do not run out of their Medi-Cal service. There are options for the whole family and there are agreements with educational centers that facilitate access to this service.
«If you were left without coverage in June, you still have 90 days to be reinstated and you have to return the package, please look for the package, we will talk to you, also check your emails, we are calling you. We are waiting the months until the disenrollment process, as we look for ways to keep our members from going without coverage, we are doing everything we can, we continue to work with our community partners to make it happen», he expressed Yingjia Huang out of concern for people who have not yet sent their documentation.
Jessica Altman, general director of Covered California, explained about the process and the supports that are available to help all communities in their renewal.
Coverage depends on several things, such as each person's employment and income, which is why options are sought for people who want to keep their Medi-Cal, such is the case of support to cover payments and that are lower, or even keep them for free.
Most of those who lose Medi-Cal are covered by Covered California, and one-third of them find they won't pay anything each month, while 90 percent of people pay $10 or less for their health insurance, due to to a new program.
The transition from Medi-Cal to Covered California is intended to be easy, but the reality is that there are many problems, those who do not speak English must be contacted and support for different languages must be provided. There is also support on various digital platforms that are available in a few languages and dialects are not taken into account so that everyone has access to this information.
«We want all the communities to know that we are going to continue supporting everyone, we want everyone to receive information, regardless of their language or situation, so that they have access to the information they need for this process and thus receive all the help», he pointed out.
Louise McCarthy, CEO of the Community Clinic Association of LA County, explained that her work and the coalition of centers in Los Angeles County are important to the community, with 113 organizations throughout the county, 400 offices serving 1.89 million people in said city, where 60 percent are with Medi-Cal.
The health centers are working to help their patients in every possible way, implementing different ways to reach out to the community to provide them with information and support them in their renewal process.
This situation is extremely important, since there are people who are receiving treatment for dangerous diseases that cannot be stopped, and losing their affiliation would put their lives at risk.
«There is a new resource: an additional 60 million dollars to the budget that will support membership in non-profit organizations. The state wants to distribute that quickly to help organizations and the community, because our vision is for our patients to keep the medical access they already have.», commented
Rosario Arreola Pro, director of operations for the California Rural Indian Health Board, which represents 19 tribal clinics and 59 tribes throughout California, noted that between 30 and 60 percent of patients in the tribes are Medi-Cal recipients.
Many people who belong to these groups need medical services, from mental health to dental or specialization, but now during the determination process, it is estimated that 1 in 5 beneficiaries will lose their service due to changes in employment or for the simple fact of not renewing.
«We are sending messages, we have people in the field, we also have community health workers, including people who send their documents due to lack of time, but we are depending on the registration to the clinic», shared Rosario Arreola faced with the worrying situation of not being able to help more people without documentation.
Dr. Seciah Aquino of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, shared her vision before the organization that represents more than 40 percent of the Californian population, which is around 16 million Latinos.
According to the data shared, of the people who have been discharged, 52.5 percent are Latinos, approximately 117,849 people, so Medi-Cal is a way of providing security and it is very important that the community is registered.
«It has been important for us to communicate this logistics, because many know what we are talking about, but do not know how to carry out their procedures or how to make it possible.», he expressed.
For the associations, communication has been key in recent months, they seek to be heard through text messages, emails, letters in their homes and in a personal way with a direct approach.
«I come from public health, and from this perspective we must think about systems that will keep people covered. We have seen that at the federal level the support was to keep these people covered through complete systems, in reality, this is an investment, not only in our health but in our economy, when we keep people healthy, we keep our economy healthy», he claimed.
For Mayra Alvarez, president of the Children's Partnership, children will be one of the sectors most affected in case of losing Medi-Cal: 15 million people have this insurance, but 60 percent of children in California are covered by it and, of those, approximately 70 percent are children of color, so keeping the service available is a priority.
During this process, it is estimated that 2.3 million people are the ones who could lose coverage, so people must first be understood in order to later be able to help them in their process, only in this way can they fight against those barriers that do not allow people keep their health coverage.
«We are here to make sure that you as our partners do not lose communication with our families, we can give you the information so you do not lose your medical service".
The time is now, do not lose your medical service, at some point you will be regretting it, approach any of the options that provide full support and do not let more time pass.
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