By Adriana Zyskowski
From the beautiful sunshine to the breathtaking mountain views, the list for why California is so awesome could literally be as big as the state. Aside from the killer scenery, California’s diversity plays a big a role in our state’s greatness. A variety of cultures and languages are intertwined in the foundation of the Golden State. This diversity has helped put our state at the forefront of many things – as fun as entertainment, and as serious as health care – for other states to observe and follow.
One big way California is helping lead the way is with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. With enrollment for the ACA rapidly approaching, being inclusive of the languages that are spoken in California is extremely important for creating a non-scary and understandable enrollment process. Covered California has been a pioneer in the process – their website is already in English and Spanish, and they have informational sheets translated into 13 other threshold languages.
A lot of non-English speakers are uninsured in California:
- 14.5% of Chinese speakers are uninsured
- 22.4% of Vietnamese speakers are uninsured
- 31.3% of Spanish speakers are uninsured
Therefore, marketing in non-English languages will soon increase dramatically.
So, if someone who only speaks Vietnamese reads Vietnamese marketing materials, and chooses that health plan, does that mean their enrollment documents will also be in Vietnamese?
Not necessarily.
For years, health insurance companies have only been required to translate their materials from English into the next major language spoken by their enrollees – usually Spanish. However, SB 353, which is currently pending in the state legislature, proposes a few things:
- Require health plans and insurers that market in non-English languages to provide translated documents in those languages
- Provide the Department of Insurance with greater authority to review and approve insurance marketing materials in other languages
- Provide the Department of Managed Care with a true copy of marketing materials before they are published.
- Violation of the above would be a crime and subject to criminal penalties
Under the proposed law, if insurance companies are marketing in languages other than English, they will then also be required to translate the most important insurance documents (welcome letter, applications for enrollment, and summaries of benefits coverage) into the languages they are marketing in.
According to the 2009 California Health Interview Survey, in California 46.6% of young adults ages 18-24 and 51.6% between the ages of 25-39 speak a language other than English at home. So, the importance of having both marketing materials and health insurance documents in other languages is huge. Signing up for health insurance is already a daunting task – making it as friendly as possible for young adults to understand and help their parents will make a difference come October 1st.