New Spanish-Language Cartoon and Calculator to Help Consumers Understand Health Insurance

The Kaiser Family Foundation today released two new Spanish-language tools to help consumers better understand health insurance as they shop for plans during open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces and in other venues.

El seguro de salud, explicado: ¡los YouToons lo tienen cubierto!, is a Spanish version of the five-minute cartoon video Health Insurance Explained – The YouToons Have It Covered, a light-hearted treatment of a difficult and important topic. It breaks down important health insurance concepts, such as premiums and provider networks, and explains how individuals pay for coverage and obtain medical care and prescription drugs when enrolled in various types of health insurance, including HMOs and PPOs. Pamela Silva Conde, a six-time Emmy Award-winning journalist who co-anchors the Univision Network’s Primer Impacto, narrates the video, which is the third written and produced by the Foundation featuring the YouToons. All three videos are available in both English and Spanish.

Additionally, Calculadora del Mercado de Seguros Médicos, the Spanish version of the Foundation’s Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator, now includes zip code-specific data on 2015 marketplace plans. It allows consumers to generate estimates of their heath insurance premiums and government subsidies based on zip code, household income, family size and ages of family members. The calculator also helps people determine whether they could be eligible for Medicaid.

 The Foundation developed the video and calculator to aid Spanish-speaking consumers as they make decisions about health coverage for 2015 — whether through the ACA marketplaces, job-based coverage, or Medicaid. Organizations and individuals are encouraged to embed both tools on their websites, as well as share them via social media. Detailed instructions are available for embedding the calculator. The YouToons video can be embedded via YouTube’s share button.

The previous two Spanish-language videos, La reforma de salud llega al público and Los YouToons se preparan para Obamacare, also are available.

For other consumer resources, visit the Foundation’s Understanding Health Insurance web page in English or Spanish.

Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues, the Kaiser Family Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Menlo Park, California.