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In the past year, Kate Bicego and the staff of the hot line at Health Care for All have fielded calls for assistance in 17 languages.
(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff ) |
KATE BICEGO | G Force
Uninsured, and with no training in health care, Kate Bicego seemed an unlikely candidate four years ago to staff a hot line that connects callers to care. But the eager young recruit from rural Illinois had passion, curiosity, and fluency in Spanish, which is critical for what she’s doing now. The 28-year-old runs the hot line at Health Care for All (800-272-4232, 617-350-7279, www.hcfama.org), a large Boston-based consumer group that helps roughly 3,200 callers a month navigate an increasingly complex health care system. As consumers face a dizzying array of choices and rules from the 2006 Massachusetts law that overhauled the state’s health insurance system - the law requires nearly everyone to have insurance or pay a penalty - the hot line is busier than ever. Here is an edited version of a recent conversation. KAY LAZAR
Q. What’s the most memorable call you’ve taken?
A. Actually it was an e-mail that said, “I don’t know if you remember me, but you helped me get health insurance when I needed to begin cancer treatments for small cell lung cancer.’’ She had tried to apply herself and was denied (subsidized coverage). She had delayed treatment for almost four months because of this rigmarole. She wrote, “My doctor had told me that without treatment survival would have only been 2 to 3 months,’’ and she said, “Because of you, I have survived this year.’’ That was heart-stopping. That was the first time it really put into perspective what I was doing. Q. In how many languages has your hot line received calls?
A. Within the last year, we’ve fielded calls from folks who speak: Arabic, Cantonese, French, French Creole, Guajarati, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
Q. Do you ever share with callers your personal experience of not being able to afford health insurance?
A. I don’t make a point of telling people my story when I talk to them, but sometimes people will say, “Do you know what it feels like to not be able to get the care you need?’’ And I say I do. When I started at Health Care for All, I was finally able to get a physical and treat my asthma. I knew what it was like to be terrified of having an asthma attack and not having insurance and being rushed to an emergency room and not being able to pay those bills.
Q. What is the biggest change you’ve made as manager of the HelpLine?
A. When I first came in we weren’t doing the best job connecting our HelpLine work to our policy work. And we were taking all of the information from callers on paper. Now, we are completely digitized. Each person who calls us is logged, where they are calling from and why, so every week I am able to pull reports to give to our outreach and development teams. The information is influencing policy work that we do to make the health care system better.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
