Health care coverage can be hard to get, hard to use, and hard to keep. Many people are expected to make important choices about their health care coverage without enough information. It is common to feel overwhelmed, confused, or not up to the task of making a decision about coverage. It can not only be frustrating, but more significantly, can affect someone’s ability to get care when they need it.
From January 1, 2025, through May 31, 2026, The Asclepius Initiative worked to help close the knowledge gap through a health care coverage literacy project funded by the Kentucky Department for Public Health. This project delivered clear, practical education to underserved populations throughout the Commonwealth, particularly Black, Spanish-speaking, and rural communities.
The goal was straightforward: help more Kentuckians learn how health care coverage works, what options are available, where to find help, and what questions to ask.
Why Health Care Coverage Literacy Matters
The health care coverage system is confusing by design. Each coverage type has different eligibility rules, enrollment processes, cost and benefit structures, and navigation challenges. There is a lot of specialized terminology involved. Even for a particular insurance company, the details of the plans offered can vary widely. It is also incredibly easy to lose coverage, with job, life, or income changes, or failures to meet arbitrary deadlines.
These are not small details. They can affect whether a person can afford or access care, whether they wind up with insurmountable medical bills, or whether they lose their coverage altogether.
Improving health care coverage literacy helps people navigate the system we have today. It gives people the information they need to make better decisions around coverage choice and use. It can also help people feel more prepared and empowered to ask questions, compare options, or seek support.
No one should have to become an expert just to use their health care coverage. But this is often necessary given the complexity of the U.S. health care coverage system. In order to succeed, people need information that is readily available, clear, and practical.
A Project Built Around Community Partners
Over the course of the grant, TAI worked with 13 embedded community partners across Kentucky. These organizations and individuals delivered relevant information on health care coverage directly to the people they serve.
Together, our partners held or took part in 128 events and reached more than 17,000 people.
That connection matters because trusted community partners are a key link between knowledge and action. They know their communities. They know the barriers people face. They know where people gather, what questions come up most often, and what kind of information and support is most useful.
Those living in rural areas may have different situations and different needs from those in a city. A Spanish-speaking family may desire materials that are understandable in their native language and culturally appropriate. A person who has had a bad experience with the health care system may be more likely to respond to a familiar source.
Our community partners brought thoughtfulness, inspiration, and joy to this health care coverage literacy project, which was made better and more successful by their engagement, questions, and ideas. Together, we were able to get useful education into the hands of those who are too often left to figure things out on their own.
Free Resources People Can Use Anytime
Through this project, TAI expanded our free online resources to cover more health care coverage topics in plain language. These materials provide important information on common issues such as employer-sponsored coverage, Marketplace coverage, Medicaid, Medicare/Medicare Advantage, how to use health care coverage, understanding medical bills and insurance documents, comparing plans, and what to do when coverage changes.
TAI also produced nearly two dozen new and revised animated videos and webinars. These videos were designed to make complicated subjects easier to understand. It can be challenging to read long documents or dig through several websites for answers. Short, straightforward videos can help people get the main points quickly and explore more detailed information if needed.
To make this content more accessible to a wider audience, the animated videos have subtitles in 11 languages. The website also has a dropdown menu to translate the content into these languages, reducing barriers to knowledge. If additional languages are needed, please let us know.
Why This Work Matters
Health care coverage education cannot fix the system. But it can help the people who use it to ask better questions, avoid missed deadlines, and find resources that may help them get or keep coverage and care.
When people have better information, they are better prepared to use the coverage they have, respond effectively when their coverage changes, and speak up when the system is not working for them.
It may also increase awareness of the need for a more stable, less complex, and more user-friendly system.
The grant period has ended for this health care coverage literacy project, but our quest to educate the public and make the system work better for everyone will continue. TAI will keep building resources and sharing information to make health care coverage easier to obtain, understand, and navigate.
Because health care is a right, not a luxury.