Area politicians and community leaders met Monday in Albany to launch the 2016 "Countdown to Coverage" campaign, marking the beginning of this year’s open enrollment period.
The campaign's mission: let thousands of area residents and small business owners know of the need to enroll in health coverage by January 31, 2016 through the NY State of Health Marketplace, and tell them how to get free help with navigating the process.
Now in its third year, the 2016 initiative hopes to continue to build on success of New York State of Health enrollment. Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy: "The program that's in place, it works. It makes a difference in people's lives, it creates stability that they would not other wise have."
Considerable buzz centers around a new coverage option for low and moderate income people: the Essential Plan, a new low-cost coverage option available on January 1 for people whose family income is just a bit too high to qualify for Medicaid.
Albany City Treasurer Darius Shahinfar is working to ensure the maximum number of Albany residents sign up for health coverage in the coming weeks. "If you don't have health coverage, talk to a navigator, get it now, you'll be better off."
Corey Ellis with the Capital District Black Chamber of Commerce speaks about the navigator program. "Hundreds of people we have seen in the last two years. It has changed their lives. People walked through our door, knowing they didn't have health coverage, knowing they had a sick child, knowing that they had just lost health coverage and did not know what to do. If you ever sat across the table from those individuals and saw once they realized, one, that they had to pay, but also got a tax credit to go toward helping them with their premium payments, that they never thought. An individual walks in not realizing that they qualify for Medicaid, and now that health coverage that they so desperately needed and didn't think they could get because they didn't have a job, is there for them."
Margo Janack, Chief Marketing and Outreach Officer of New York State of Health, says with less than two weeks to the November 2nd open enrollment period, the agency is on target to reach its goal of one million fewer uninsured in New York State by the end of 2016. "So that's more than 2.5 million New Yorkers have enrolled in coverage through the marketplace, and that's 1 in 10 New Yorkers. 89 per cent of them were uninsured at the time that they enrolled. Last year, 74 percent of the New Yorkers who enrolled received tax credit. Last open enrollment period, over 68,000 residents of the greater Capital Region enrolled through the marketplace, and that's more than double the previous year."
Karen Scharff is the Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York: "The New York State of Health marketplace has an 800 number, a toll-free number, 855-355-5777, that's 855-355-5777 and people can call that number to get the name and phone number of a navigator to call up, make an appointment to get health insurance."
Qualified Health Plans offered in New York State of Healthare available in four easy-to-compare metal tiers.
