I sat on the side, listening and taking notes as I shadowed one of the coworkers in the KCAL Insurance office in Hacienda Heights. She was assisting an elderly Chinese American client with MediCare enrollment, and I watched as she guided him through the steps he would take to get his benefits on the social security websitE. Unfortunately, however, the client had forgotten his login, and he would have to contact the social security hotlines in order to gain access.
One of the most meaningful components of my host office placement is having the opportunity to learn more about some of the issues that elderly Asian American communities experience when attempting to enroll in health insurance, which include language accessibility, costly co-pays and expenses, lack of in-network coverage, and transportation. For example, the coworker that I shadowed mentioned that many elderly people have trouble understanding their benefits in their native language or cannot find proper transportation to see a provider. Additionally, many people are enrolled under an HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) plan, which often works with a limited number of providers, leading to long waits—sometimes weeks—to see a specialist. This was a really eye-opening experience, as elderly Asian American immigrant communities are often underrepresented and underserved. Understanding the ins and outs behind health insurance is already a complex topic, so it was especially nice to see the impact of the KCal agents’ work – serving as a resource for elderly Asian Americans and helping them navigate different health plans within MediCare and private insurance.
A significant lesson I’ve learned during my time here is that data representation is crucial to getting access to the resources they need. One of the challenges I have encountered while working on research projects is the difficulty involved with finding up-to-date disaggregated data for the AAPI community. Outside of the data provided by the US Census, specific information on Asian American seniors in the Southern California region is more sparse. Therefore, it was awesome to see that organizations such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice had done a lot of work with data disaggregation — using data from the US Census and breaking down statistics such as race, ethnicity, age, income, English proficiency, insured/uninsured, and much more within various regions.
One takeaway from these last few weeks here is there are so many ways to get involved with social justice work that exist in spaces outside of politics, including working as an insurance agent who helps Asian American seniors get access to proper healthcare. When we think about the future, in order to make significant change, we not only need policymakers, but also people who are willing to do different kinds of on-the-ground work and interact directly with community members. Community-oriented work may not necessarily result in large-scale policy change, but it allows for us to make significant impacts in a specific community that directly alters their lives for the better.