Health Insurance Refuses to Believe That I Only Understand English

Okay, so this has been bothering me for a while now.

But every time I try to tell my health insurance (Medi-cal) and medical providers that I read and understand English only, they continue to send me things in Spanish.

Medi-cal notices in the mail?

Spanish.

Provider email reminders?

Spanish.

Provider member portal?

Spanish.

It doesn't make any sense to force a default language on someone who was born in and grew up in the United States just because their last name is in a non-English language but that's what they seem to be doing.

I currently have Molina (I know, I know, but I was assigned to them through Medi-cal) and just to give you an example of what this is like, when I login to their member portal, the website automatically shows up in Spanish. I have to switch the language option on the top right to English, and even then, some things are still left in Spanish.

If I try to change "My Molina Language Preference" in account settings to English, it stays with Spanish no matter how many times I save it. But then when I look at "Communication Preferences" (which is just above that section) it has my primary language listed as English with my details listed in Spanish. For example, "Gender Identity" is written in English, but it says "Mujer" underneath, which I know is "women" in Spanish ("female" obviously), but shouldn't the whole section be in English and not partially in Spanish if my primary language is English?

ಠ_๏

So, yeah. Lots of confusion there.

I will say though that on the Molina app, it saved my English preferences no problem. So maybe the website is no good or maybe my prehistoric computer can't handle it. I don't know.

But despite this, the app will still give me Spanish sometimes too. I requested to have another copy of my card sent to me, and a pop-up window came out with a question in Spanish (I used a translator and it was just a confirmation of my request).

Notes:

I have a Spanish last name thanks to my father. I live in California. I am an adult. When it comes to health insurance language preferences, I always choose English as a primary language. I have never chosen Spanish (for obvious reasons, one being that I don't understand 99% of it). I think I called Molina member services to ask them to change it, but I honestly can't remember. I definitely called the number for my BenefitsCal caseworker telling them to change the language to English, but, like I mentioned previously, my notices in the mail continue to be written in Spanish.

So, any suggestions would be appreciated.

I hope I'm not the only one who's gone through this.

Bonus:

What does this mean?

"Please contact your respective state government agency for your Medicaid, Medicare/MMP or Marketplace (State or Federal Facilitated Marketplace (FFM)) product to make the change permanent."

It was under the "My Personal Details" section on Molina's website so things like address, state, etc, which I don't need to change right now, but I'm a little confused by who they're talking about. Is it my county's Department of Social Services phone number?

…

Looking at the "Update Your Information" section on this Medi-Cal DHCS contact page I think I answered my own question, lol. But if I'm wrong, please let me know.

Thank you in advance!

^_^

submitted by /u/heyitsjoanneonrddit
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