Luisa Maria Uribe doesn’t know much about the new health care law signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year.

    “I’ve heard that everybody will get health insurance, but I’m not sure how,” said Uribe, while waiting for the trolley at the H St. station in Chula Vista. “Hopefully it will benefit a lot of people like me, who don’t have health insurance.”

    Just like Uribe, the majority of Latinos in California, 69 percent, “haven’t heard anything or don’t know” about the new health care reform law, according to a new multicultural survey presented to local reporters this week in San Diego by The California Endowment and New America Media, a network of ethnic media across the nation.

    But this disinformation about the new law is not only common among Latinos. The survey also found that 55 percent of African-Americans and 64 percent of Asians also haven’t heard anything or don’t know about the law.

    “There’s very low awareness right now for the law that was signed by President Obama,” said Scott Gardner, a research coordinator for Bendixen & Amandi, the firm that conducted part of the survey.

    Of those Latinos surveyed that said they do know about the new law, 9 percent said it will give “free healthcare for all or universal coverage.” Also, 7 percent said they need more information, don’t have enough information, or don’t understand it and find it confusing.

    Indeed, the new law can be confusing, even for media professionals.

    “It is a huge monster,” said the owner of a local Spanish-language weekly in San Diego during the New America Media briefing on the new law.

    For Sandy Close, executive director of New America Media, it is up to ethnic media to inform and explain their readers and audiences the different aspects of the law, always trying to put a human face to all the numbers and statistics.

    “Ethnic media are key to ensuring they are informed,” Close said. “We are it. We are the main source of information for many people in the state, and we have to present the information on this law in stories and language they can understand.”

    Close said that New America Media is currently developing a question and answer column where experts will answer people’s questions on health reform.

    People will be able to e-mail their questions or call an 800 number where they will be able to leave a message and someone will call them to get their question.

    “These are going to be very personal questions, very specific to the person who is asking it, but I’m sure a lot of us will be able to relate and learn something new about different aspects of this law,” Close said.

    The columns will be published by ethnic media that are part of New America Media, including .

     With the new health care reform law, which is officially called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, by 2014, virtually all immigrants and ethnic Californians can receive health care insurance at very low cost. Yet more than 90 percent of ethnic Americans know nothing about the law and how it could improve access to the quality care of health care for them and their families. 

    Dr. Linda Hill, clinical professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UCSD, said during the briefing that the new law will benefit recent immigrants as well as low-income families.

    For more than 30 years, Hill has worked with migrant families as part of her work with San Diego Family Care, a community health center.

    “There are many gaps in our current health care system,” she said. “With this new law, the health of the whole nation is going to improve.”

    To read more stories on the new health care reform law from an ethnic perspective, please visit New America Media at www.newamericamedia.org.