Cuts to the ACA’s Outreach Budget Will Make It Harder for People to Enroll in Coverage
<p>At a recent concert in Clearwater, Florida, Jodi Ray was proud to recognize the lead singer — a previously uninsured man in his forties whom she helped get health coverage, which led to his first doctor’s visit in years. Ray, who directs a navigator program that helps Floridians enroll in health insurance, guided the musician through the process of buying a plan through the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance marketplace.</p>
<p>But in a new feature article, The Commonwealth Fund’s Shanoor Seervai explains that navigators like Ray may not be able to provide this vital service for the open-enrollment period starting November 1. That’s because the Trump administration has slashed the federal ACA advertising budget by 90 percent, effectively paused the navigator program, and cut the open-enrollment period in half.</p>
<p>Drawing on Commonwealth Fund survey data, Seervai underscores the positive impact that providing information about choices and costs has on enrollment, particularly for harder-to-reach groups like people with low incomes and minorities.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2017/oct/cuts-to-aca-outreach-budget Read more