Across the country, as health care navigators continue their critical work to help enroll people in health coverage, the experience of multilingual assisters illustrates how one’s voice can be a lifeline for those facing critical barriers to accessing health coverage and services. Rumina Lakmis of Springdale, Arkansas, is one example. As a navigator at the non-profit Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese (ACOM), she is a resource for a sizeable Marshallese community in the state, which includes many limited-English speakers who rely on her for language support or for assistance understanding their insurance options or eligibility they cannot access elsewhere.
Nationally, about one-third of Asian Americans (AA) and 14 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI), which includes people from the Marshall Islands, do not read, speak, write, or understand English well. Without help in their own languages, essential services and resources are inaccessible to them. Even enrolling in health insurance or using coverage to see a doctor or fill a prescription is very difficult because of the lack of assistance for limited-English speakers.
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