According to data just released by Covered California, more than 625,000 Californians have enrolled in Covered California health plans so far, and Medi-Cal enrollment has topped 1.2 million individuals.
Demand for affordable, accessible health care is strong in California, and numbers are expected to continue to rise. Of those enrolled so far, 424,936 are eligible for federal subsidies.
While the numbers are impressive, there is still much work to be done. Covered California continues to make improvements to their website and plans to increase staff numbers to handle calls, questions and eligibility concerns.
December data has shown improved trends in the number of Latinos enrolling, a group which is critical to the overall long-term success of the program. Latinos account for more than half of California’s 7 million uninsured residents, and Covered California must ensure that outreach programs, bilingual enrollment counselors and fully translated materials are readily available to this demographic.
Out of a grand total of 389,739 individuals who enrolled in October, November and December with subsidy status, 24,391 indicated Spanish as their preferred language; 34,234 indicated Asian and Pacific Islander languages; 955 indicated Indo-European languages and 330,159 indicated English.
On the small business side of things, Covered California’s Small Business Health Options Program reports that more than 289 small businesses have applied for coverage, and a total of 2,155 employees and their dependents were provided coverage through their employers.
Overall, what do these numbers and statistics mean to the translation industry? Essentially, we can conclude that there is strong interest in healthcare coverage across cultural and ethnic demographics in California, and communicating to these groups in their preferred languages is crucial to helping them sign up for the healthcare they need. Health plans must ensure that translated materials are accurate, culturally appropriate and ready to be distributed when needed to the ethnic groups requiring them.
Avantpage offers a complete suite of translation and linguistic services in over 150 languages. You’ll find a wealth of great translation information on our website.
For example:
Medical & Healthcare translations
Spanish translations
Case Study: Spanish Translation for Healthcare
