Navigator groups get $67M to sign up uninsured

Associated Press

CHICAGO

With the new health law’s enrollment period set to open in just a little more than six weeks, President Barack Obama’s administration announced $67 million in awards Thursday to organizations that will help people understand their new insurance opportunities and get signed up.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the Navigator grant awards to 105 groups in states where the federal government will run online insurance marketplaces. Sebelius said consumers are “hungry for information.”

Ideally, navigators will use a variety of math and logic skills to walk people through the somewhat confusing process of buying insurance. For example, navigators will help people estimate their family income for 2014, important in determining eligibility for federal tax credits to help pay the cost of coverage.

Navigators may need to answer questions about family size, such as: Do you count the kids if they are claimed on an ex-spouse’s income tax? And, they will need to be able to explain the differences between the bronze, silver, gold and platinum insurance policies offered on the marketplaces.

Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the Navigator program will be particularly important in such states as Florida and Ohio that aren’t doing any state-directed outreach. The pressure now is on the organizations getting the awards, which “don’t have a lot of time” to hire and train staff and plan their strategy for reaching the uninsured, she said.

Enrollment for the health law’s new coverage options starts Oct. 1, and benefits kick in Jan. 1.

In Ohio, the following groups received awards:

Ohio Association of Foodbanks, $1,958,961.

Children’s Hospital Medical Center, $124,419.

Clermont Recovery Center, Inc., $44,938. The center is a drug-and-alcohol treatment and prevention agency in Batavia.

Helping Hands Community Outreach Center, $230,920. The nonprofit organization operates in the Dayton area.

Neighborhood Health Association, $684,630. The federally qualified health center system is in northwest Ohio.