“To live in this country without insurance — it’s scary,” 74-year-old Wemin Yuan said about his wife who lacks health insurance. “Even if she takes the car out to go to the grocery, I … worry.”
His wife Mari, a breast cancer survivor, is one of an estimated 2.5 million Asian Americans without health insurance, reports USA Today.
Yet outreach efforts to inform Mari and others who lack insurance about their options under the Affordable Care Act seem to be off target.
The multiple languages and cultures within the Asia American Pacific Islander communities have made the task daunting.
“It’s not one-size-fits-all — you have to tailor the messages,” said Priscilla Huang, policy director with the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum
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Workers bilingual in the specific languages have been hired. Bilingual Google chats have also been held.
“I think it’s hard to think about how Obamacare impacts them when (Asians) don’t see their communities talked about or represented,” said Huang.
You can read more about the obstacles in reaching the Asian American community and what’s being done to overcome those obstacles in USA Today.
