$37 million in grants awarded to CA groups

For Outreach and Education on Obamacare

LOS ANGELES –  On Tuesday, independent state government arm Covered California announced that 48 lead organizations will be receiving a total of $37 million in grants, which will be used to deliver information on new health coverage options that will be starting in 2014 to millions of individuals and small businesses.

The grants range from $250,000 to $1,250,000, and will be used to fund outreach and education programs that will discuss how Californians can access affordable health care coverage under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (more popularly known as Obamacare) starting in 2014.

Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee said in a statement that their group is excited to partner with organizations that have strong relationships in the diverse communities of California.

Lee said that by working with these organizations, Covered California can significantly strengthen their effort in ensuring that many as Californians as possible are aware of and are enrolled in the new health insurance options beginning in Jan. 1, 2014.

Lee pointed out that Covered California’s goal is more about educating the public on the health insurance policies than getting enrollment on coverage.

While  high numbers of enrollment for coverage is a welcome development, Lee stressed that what is important for now is to “put the fertilizer on the soil” by educating the public on the new law so that they will be well-informed by the time enrollment opens in 2014.

According to Lee, over 200 lead organizations applied, but only 48 were given the grants. The selected organizations are expected to reach nearly 9 million individuals, and more than 200,000 small businesses across California’s 58 counties.

The focus of the education campaign will be on the 5.3 million Californians in need of individual insurance, and half of whom might be qualified for financial assistance with their premiums.

The program is also expected to provide consumers and small businesses with information and tools that will let individuals and employers enroll for coverage on their own.  The program will also focus on establishing an linguistically and culturally diverse statewide network that will reach out and educate targeted regions and ethnic groups, particularly the audiences with limited English proficiency.

The 48 selected organizations will also be reaching out to Californians in at least 13 different languages, which include Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, English, Farsi, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Among the 48, 20 are Asian organizations. 18 of the 20 have indicated that they will reach out to the Filipino community.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), an LA-based civil rights organization for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, was among the grantee organizations present on Tuesday’s announcement.

APALC President and Executive Director Stewart Kwoh said that the legal center was very excited for the grant and that they look forward to working with 21 community-based partner organizations, which includes Filipinos, Koreans, Chinese, among others.

APALC was granted $1 million to reach out to small businesses, English as Second Language schools, and adult schools, through various methods like town hall meetings, one-on-one educational meetings, support groups, after school programs, and on-site meetings and activities at the APALC office in LA.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Kwoh said, “We’re very excited because there’s close to 600,000 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are eligible for Covered California insurance.”

According to Kwoh, about 370,000 of those will be eligible for some subsidies. Then, some 300,000 to 350,000 would qualify for extended MediCal. He pointed out that there are some 1 million Asian Americans who are not yet insured, and will get some coverage, if they apply for Covered California’s program.

Doreena Wong, APALC’s health access project director said that the legal center has 14 partner sub-contractor organizations working with them in LA.

Wong said that APALC will go out to various events to educate the target communities. These events include community fairs, workshops, town halls and community forums.

The organizations that APALC will be working with on the project include Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), Filipino American Service Group Inc. (FASGI), Thai CDC, Korean Community Center, Korean Resource Center, and Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, among others.

Other notable grantees include Access  California Services ($500,000), Anaheim Regional Medical Center ($500,000), California State University Los Angeles ($1,250,000), California Black Health Network ($1 million), California Health Collaborative ($940,000), Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles ($940,000), Fresno Health Communities Access Partners ($760,000), Los Angeles Unified School District ($990,000), and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center ($1 million).

(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend May 18-21, 2013 Sec. A pg.1)