Covered California urges Kern residents to sign up for health care amid increased financial help [The Bakersfield Californian]

Nov. 18—Roughly 120,000 people who reside in eastern Kern County and throughout the Central Valley don't have health care, and California's main health insurance marketplace kicked off a virtual campaign Friday in Bakersfield to motivate these people to sign up for coverage.

Event speakers conveyed the affordability of signing up for health care under Covered California while instilling its importance. Activist Dolores Huerta, who spoke at the virtual event, recounted a farmworker who was unaware he had a brain tumor because he skipped basic checkups. Signing up for Covered California allowed him to get the health care he needed, she said.

"This person would have died had he not enrolled in Covered California," Huerta added.

Huerta noted that enrolling in Covered California won't affect immigration status, and protecting your own health ensures others are protected, too. Going to an emergency room when an illness becomes unmanageable is often more expensive than getting preventative health care.

"This is such a gem, a treasure that we have in our state," Huerta added of Covered California.

Farmworkers and low-income families always say their main priority is ensuring they remain healthy, Huerta said, which supports the importance of signing up for health care coverage.

More than 1 million Californians are eligible for health care coverage but have forgone signing up, said Jessica Altman, the executive director of Covered California. Roughly 50 percent of this group could get health care coverage at no cost, and others would be eligible for financial help to reduce monthly premiums, Altman added.

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act led to decreased costs for people in nearly every income bracket, according to a Covered California news release.

For example, a 21-year-old woman living in Delano who makes $27,000 per year would qualify for a plan charging her $26 per month, according to a news release from Covered California. A Bakersfield family of four whose annual net income is $83,250 would pay $338 per month for health care coverage, the news release added.

California's uninsured rate has fallen from 17 percent in 2013 to 7 percent in 2021, Altman said.

In June 2014, there were 14,860 people signed up for health care coverage in Kern County through Covered California. That number increased to 23,390 in June of this year, which is a 57 percent increase in the number of people who receive health care insurance locally, according to the news release.

The deadline to sign up is Dec. 31.

Covered California is "an independent part of the state government" that is overseen by a five-member board appointed by the governor and legislature. Consumers can compare health insurance plans, and some may qualify for low-cost or no-cost Medi-Cal. The insurance market also celebrated its 10-year anniversary in the virtual meeting.

You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.

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