Sebelius to Hispanics: Give O-Care another shot

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday urged Hispanics to give the online federal healthcare exchanges another look after months of setbacks left the administration behind in Hispanic enrollment.

“It’s been a whole new experience since the end of November,” Sebelius said in a Google Hangout with Voto Latino. “CuidadoDeSalud.gov, which was missing at the beginning, is now up and running and loaded.”

In the infomercial-style hangout, Sebelius touted the federal premium subsidies that will be available to many Hispanics, as well as the Spanish-language services the administration is offering.

Hispanics make up roughly one-third of the uninsured population in the U.S., according to the National Council of La Raza. However, the administration has so far struggled to enroll Hispanics in ObamaCare.

On Thursday, Covered California reported that it was exceeding its enrollment goals overall, but lagging in its Hispanic enrollment efforts.

The state said that nearly half of uninsured Californians eligible for federal premium subsidies are Hispanic, but that Hispanics so far make up only 20 percent of the 625,000 that have enrolled statewide.

The Spanish-language ObamaCare website, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, launched late as the administration scrambled to fix the technical glitches at HealthCare.gov. But even after the site finally went live in December, many users struggled with the site’s functionality.

In addition, The Associated Press has reported that grammatical errors on the site are so severe that it amounts to “Spanglish. The administration has strongly refuted that charge.