Latinos focus of Obamacare enrollment, no Spanish-language website yet

NBCLatinoBy Suzanne Gamboa, NBCLatino

The administration has dedicated this week to signing up Latinos for health care coverage, despite the fact the Spanish-language website is not operational yet.

People who want to enroll in Spanish starting Monday “are encouraged to use the Spanish-language enrollment options that are already available at 1-800-318-2596 and through in-person assistance in communities across the country,” Joanne Peters, a Health and Human Services spokeswoman said in a statement distributed by the White House Friday night.

The White House had put off a full launch of the Spanish-language site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, until the middle of this month. The English-language site, HealthCare.gov was launched Oct. 1.

Users can read information at the Spanish-language site but cannot apply online for insurance coverage yet.

“Additional features for online enrollment will be available as we make upgrades to the site,” Peters said in the statement.

The English-language site has been troubled since its start and those technical troubles have been seized upon by critics of Obamacare as an early example of its dysfunction.

The backlash has grown so intense that President Barack Obama planned to address the issues in a Rose Garden speech Monday, while also extolling the benefits of the 3-year-old health care law.

It will be the second time he’s held a public address to thwart criticism of the law, which is often referred to as Obamacare. On Sept. 26, he lambasted Republicans for threatening to shutter the government if money for the health coverage law wasn’t cut off.

The shutdown came and dragged on for 16 days while the nation edged close to defaulting on its debt. But an 11th hour deal crafted by Senate leaders ended the shutdown for a few months and funded the government.

However, conservative Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas spent the weekend promising to continue to try to stop Obamacare.

Despite the glitches and criticism, the administration is going forward with its week of focus on Latino enrollment, said Katherine Vargas, White House spokeswoman.

Vargas said the administration and federal government are partnering with Spanish-language media to highlight the importance of the law in the Latino community.

Latinos are considered critical to the success of Obamacare which will rely on the enrollment of healthier individuals to help offset the costs of medical care for those who are ill or less healthy.

Latinos tend to be younger than the general U.S. population and as such, generally healthier. Latinos have the highest rate of uninsured people of any ethnic group.

Some 10.2 million Latinos are estimated by the administration to be eligible to buy coverage through the health insurance marketplaces created by Obamacare. Some states are running their own sites and may already be operating enrollment online in Spanish.

The administration held events in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, which ran from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, before the government shutdown. This week’s focus on Hispanics and the health care law is supposed to be the culmination of those efforts.

This article was originally published in NBCLatino.

[Photo by Ron Dauphin]

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