Health insurance can be really expensive these days. For that reason, Las Positas College has taken on the HealthPAC, the Health Program of Alameda County, for low income students who cannot afford health insurance and also do not qualify for Medi-cal. This allows for the students to have insurance and not worry about what they’re going to do if a situation arises and the student isn’t insured.
Dayna Barbero, Family Nurse Practitioner for LPC, has been the head of this program at LPC and is working for the students’ benefits.
“What was very frustrating (was that) I’ve been here for five years. I was finding this gap between the students whose parents had insurance, that they could be continued on and that was when they turned 26 years old, and those students that qualified for Medi-cal,” Barbero said. “And the students in between seemed like they couldn’t afford student insurance, but yet they couldn’t qualify for Medi-cal, so they were uninsured.”
LPC students can go to the Health Center or online to a link off the Health Center website. HealthPAC allows students out of the Alameda, Contra Costa and San Jaoquin Counties to apply for the health insurance, and be able to go to clinics that are local for the students, helping them to not have to travel long distance.
When applying, students must be residents of Alameda County, have a limited income that is 200 percent below the Federal Poverty Level, no health coverage, or health coverage for the service needed and to just complete the HealthPAC application. Barber did say that nobody has been turned down, and there have been a lot of people to apply for it.
“If you’re within the poverty level, which is up to 200 percent of the current poverty level, you can qualify for this, and I have not had one student get turned down,” Barbero said.
Barbero said that she has not heard of any kind of issues or problem concerning the program, and that it seems to be heading in the right direction.
