Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) Health Reform Dissemination Program

In 2010, Asian Center – SE MI signed up as a community organization that will help the Asian American community to understand and enroll in the new Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA). We have a group of bilingual community workers (in various Asian languages) who can be trained to understand this program; and then cascade it to our community. We had been working with our community on health matters, and learned there were about 75% older Asian Americans in the state that did not have health insurance (data collected from health fairs). This would be a great opportunity to help them enroll in the program so they will have health insurance. In addition to understand the program, we would also act as an advisor who can help community people to select an insurance that is suitable for their health needs.  Since we had also been working with various Asian ethnic community organizations, we could tap into their community health workers who can be trained and reach their own members using their native language. These community health workers all can be trained to thoroughly understand the program and can help their community people enroll into the Affordable Care Act.