Si le gusta su seguro médico lo puede mantener.
Turns out it’s no better in Spanish than it is in English: “If you like your health plan, you can keep it.” Especially if you are trying to purchase your health plan on the special Web site set up for Spanish-speakers: CuidadoDeSalud.gov.
In the last few days, news reports have focused on what we might call “los glitches” of this site: a debut that was two months late, translations that are more Spanglish than Spanish and navigation issues that some users say are worse than the problems English-speakers have encountered on HealthCare.gov.
The failure here is startling on two levels.
First, Latinos were supposed to be among the prime beneficiaries of ObamaCare. The percentage of Latinos without health coverage is almost three times that of whites, and nearly double that of blacks. And the Latino population is younger on average than the general population, making their sign-ups vital to ObamaCare’s success.
Second, ObamaCare was thought to be the secret weapon in solidifying the Democratic Party’s hold on Latinos. During his re-election campaign, about a quarter of the president’s Spanish-language advertising focused on ObamaCare. And Latinos returned the favor, giving 71 percent of their vote to Obama in 2012 (up from 67 percent in 2008).
Until recently, the received wisdom was that if Republicans were serious about attracting Latinos to their party, they were insane to be calling for ObamaCare’s repeal.
Only a year ago, The Los Angeles Times ran such an article in which it quoted a forlorn spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee vowing “to do a better job explaining why this law is negatively affecting all Americans, including the Hispanic community.”
We suspect the ongoing problems with CuidadoDeSalud.gov has just made her job a whole lot easier. Because a broken promise is the same in any language.