Connecting Immigrants to Commercial Health Coverage: A Survey of Existing and Potential Strategies
This new analysis by New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage (NYFAHC) and funded by NYSHealth contrasts the approaches of New York's major commercial insurers to enrolling immigrant communities and finds that community credibility makes a difference. The most successful strategies integrated linguistically and culturally appropriate services with the marketing of coverage to immigrants. The report also suggests developing intermediaries between insurers and enrollees, or "connectors," that can establish group buying power and help consumers navigate coverage options.
NYFAHC makes three policy recommendations about how insurers could successfully expand coverage to immigrants: (1) insurers should intensify their efforts to communicate with immigrants in their own languages; (2) insurers should ensure that linguistically and culturally competent providers are included in their networks; (3) insurers should recognize that creative co-marketing with community programs can enhance enrollment.
NYFAHC also makes two policy recommendations for New York State: (1) the State should develop a connector entity that partners with community-based social service agencies to integrate insurance enrollment and navigational assistance into broader social services for immigrants; (2) the State should utilize the connector to introduce individuals to varying types of coverage, public, and private, rather than act as a broker for a single insurer.
This report was also featured on a Public News Service Segment on June 23, 2009.