Forum Focuses on Enrolling African Americans into New Health Care System

Looming deadlines approach for the open enrollment period of Covered California under the Affordable Care Act, yet many Pasadena residents remain uneducated about new eligibility.

A forum Tuesday evening hosted by the local alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority at the Jackie Robinson Center brought health care educators and Covered California enrollment counselors to Northwest Pasadena residents to bolster the “Covered Pasadena” initiative. That initiative hopes to enroll all Pasadena residents into health insurance.

“There is such a very low count of African Americans signed up for this program. What we found with African Americans is that only 3-5 percent of that almost 500,000 who have signed up. We have to do something about it,” Lola Price of Blue Shield said.

“We want to ensure that everyone has the same information and that people are signing up for Covered California. The statistics mentioned in terms of African Americans having the smallest percentage of enrollment is troubling to me because that’s definitely a number of the uninsured population. We have to look at how we can get this done,” Debra Ward-Samad of the Deltas said.

Many of those who attended the meeting were able to enroll or set up an appointment to enroll at a later date. The information was a wake-up call for many including Fawn Stewart who is a science teacher in PUSD and wants to spread the information to her students.

“That’s very bothersome, it’s unbelievable that an entire ethnic group has not gotten the message. It’s almost derisive,” Stewart said. “There’s literally people I’m going to wake-up and say guess what you’ve got 24 hours.”

Stewart said the information had been difficult to dig through on her own, but the forum clearly laid out that she must act quickly to get new insurance.

“I believe you do need to speak this clearly and this forcefully to certain ethnic groups, African Americans being one of them. I don’t think African Americans are as well educated about this as other ethnic groups are and I think a large part of that is because of the traditional relationship they’ve had with the medical profession in general,” Stewart said.

One of the presenters Dr. Eric Walsh, Pasadena Public Health Director, also said there is a great deal of distrust of the ACA in the black community in particular, but that the new health care attempts to be culturally appropriate.

“The affordable care act comes in to address a lot of the hidden pains of the healthcare system,” Walsh said. “In terms of overall policy, it’s a huge step in the right direction.”

The Affordable Care Act came into existence because a broken healthcare system was in place beforehand, Walsh said.

“Nobody is criticizing how terrible our healthcare system was. If you could afford our healthcare system it was the best in the world and Bently is one of the best cars in the world if you can afford it. But if you can’t afford it then its problematic,” Walsh said.

According to Walsh, in LA County, the life expectancy of the average woman is 86.9 years of age, however the average African American man will live to 69.8. The Affordable Care Act will begin to help balance the 17 years difference.

“We are canvassing the streets in many places, going to businesses, churches, families, and whatever we can to get the effort on the move. Once people become educated and they find they do qualify for subsidies, they’re elated. It’s many people who have not had the opportunity to have insurance before,” insurance agent Cheryl Bailey said.

The most important points about the Affordable Care Act include the extended amount of people who are eligible for Medical and who qualify for a government subsidy for the Covered California insurance. The Act also prevents bias based on pre-existing conditions.

While before only women with children and children qualified for Medical, now Medical is open to single men and women under the poverty line.

Those eligible for a government subsidy include incomes that are 400 percent of the poverty line, which would equate to $45,000 per year for one person.

For those who have insurance, no new action needs to be taken. However, as part of the Affordable Care Act, the law now mandates every person to obtain insurance.

Deadlines approach—March 31 is the last day of open enrollment for Covered California. Everyone who is uninsured after this date will be subject to a fine of $95 or one percent of one’s income whichever is higher. The fine will be applied to taxes in 2015. The fines will continually increase each year.

In order to be insured by the 1st of February, the deadline to enroll is January 15th. After the March 31 window, open enrollment will close until October 1, 2014.

Have the following ready when applying for Covered California health insurance plans:
The number of people being enrolled in a plan, including the birth date of each person.
Social Security numbers for each family member.
Home ZIP code.
Projected income for the coverage year. This can be obtained by checking your most recent income tax filings for the adjusted gross income, any applicable dependent tax information and head-of-household status.
Legal immigration information, such as your immigration number.
Information about status as a member of a federally recognized tribe.

Several agencies including CHAP will be hosting enrollment events. The next event will be hosted at Pasadena Central Library on Saturday, January 25 at 10 a.m. For more information visit http://www.chapcare.org.

While insuring every person is a large step in the right direction, health education has to infiltrate into homes.

“Health doesn’t happen in the hospitals. Health doesn’t happen in doctor’s offices. Health happens at home. Health happens in the parks, in your grocery stores, in the real world,” Walsh said.