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Covered California Introduces Spanish-Language ACA Forms
Two months after it opened for business, California's online health insurance exchange has introduced a Spanish-language enrollment form. Covered California officials hope the form will encourage more Spanish speakers to apply for coverage.
Enrollment in Covered California has skyrocketed the last few months, except among people whose primary language is Spanish. They make up 29 percent of California's population, but exchange officials said so far that group makes up only 5 percent of those who have signed up for a plan.
Exchange spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez admits they should have had a Spanish-language enrollment form out a lot sooner.
"But of course we did not want to put out an application that was not ready. So we needed to do some field testing, and we needed to make sure that we were having those conversations with the folks that would be using it, so it was actually usable," Lopez said.
Lopez said the new form can be used to apply for either a Covered California plan or Medi-Cal. It is available on the Covered California website