SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Open enrollment for affordable health insurance under the Affordable Care Act officially begins Saturday, Nov. 15, Covered California announced. Consumers need to enroll by Dec. 15 in order to have health insurance coverage starting on Jan. 1.
“We made history,
enrolling an estimated 3.4 million previously uninsured Californians and
cutting the state’s uninsured rate from 22 percent to 11 percent during last
open enrollment,” Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee said. “But
there still is a lot of work to do, because an estimated 3.2 million people
still are uninsured in California.”
Open enrollment is
only three months long this year, half of what it was last time around. That
is why Lee, other leaders of Covered California,
community partners and elected officials embarked on a nine-day, 30-stop bus tour, spreading the word about open enrollment in every corner
of the state. They’re making appearances at enrollment events in Los Angeles,
Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, Yuba City, Chico and Redding in the
next four days.
“As we meet
consumers across the state, we explain how to enroll in coverage and share the
tangible ways having health insurance is improving the lives of real people in
California,” Lee said. “We’re also encouraging everyone in California who has
health insurance to join the ‘I’m In’ social media campaign, to spread the word
to their friends and neighbors about the importance of getting health coverage.
On the Covered California website, the ‘Tell a Friend’ button takes users to
social media resources to get the word out about open enrollment.”
Consumers can
enroll at hundreds of events and storefronts across the state starting
tomorrow. Visit www.CoveredCA.com and click on “Find Local Help” to find
resources and events by region.
During the
three-month open enrollment, from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15, Californians who need
insurance cannot be legally turned away by health insurance companies. Plans
from up to 10 health insurance companies are available through Covered
California. Many consumers can get federal subsidies to dramatically lower
their cost of coverage, depending on their household income. There are
no annual limits on how much a plan will cover, and each plan has standardized
benefits and free preventive care.
Outreach includes the
“I’m In” and “Tengo un Plan de Salud” statewide TV, radio and print advertising
marketing campaign, with multilingual television ads running in every major
market. The ads feature the stories of real people — in their own words — who
have received important medical care as a result of getting insured through
Covered California.
In addition, this year Covered California is urging
everyone in the state — including doctors, hospitals, consumer advocates,
unions, insurance agents and health insurance companies — to urge the uninsured
to sign up for coverage through Covered California.
Covered California has improved many of its processes in
time for the upcoming open enrollment, ensuring a higher level of education and
outreach to all populations of the state. Among the improvements:
- An emphasis on, and broadening of outreach to, African-Americans, Latinos and Asian-Americans through targeted advertising in ethnic media.
- New grants supporting outreach and enrollment activities in groups anchored in African-American, Latino and Asian-American communities and new community-anchored activities throughout the state.
- Expanded Service Center hours. It is now open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. In addition, the Service Center will be open every Sunday from Nov. 16 through Dec. 15.
- The addition of more than 200 storefronts across the state, operated by community groups partnering with Covered California. These storefronts are located in easy-to-find locations such as shopping malls and are primed to help educate, enroll and renew consumers in convenient locations. This is in addition to the thousands of offices of insurance agents and partner enrollment organizations.
“Today we have more than 12,000 Certified Insurance Agents,
10,000 county eligibility workers and 6,490 Certified Enrollment Counselors
ready to help educate and enroll consumers,” Lee said.
“In-person assistance is a really big deal for consumers,
and we want to support them through retail enrollment storefronts and up to
1,000 enrollment events scheduled across the state,” Lee said. “We’re ready to
help.”
Covered California anticipates a total enrollment of 1.7
million Californians — excluding Medi-Cal enrollees — by the end of the second
open-enrollment period: 1.5 million in subsidized coverage and 230,000 in
unsubsidized coverage. This forecast represents an increase of about 500,000 in
total enrollment.
About Covered California
Covered California is the state’s marketplace for the
federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Covered California, in
partnership with the California Department of Health Care Services, was charged
with creating a new health insurance marketplace in which individuals and small
businesses can get access to affordable health insurance plans. Covered
California helps individuals determine whether they are eligible for premium
assistance that is available on a sliding-scale basis to reduce insurance costs
or whether they are eligible for low-cost or no-cost Medi-Cal. Consumers can
then compare health insurance plans and choose the plan that works best for
their health needs and budget. Small businesses can purchase competitively
priced health insurance plans and offer their employees the ability to choose
from an array of plans and may qualify for federal tax credits.
Covered California is an independent part of the state government whose job is to make the new market work for California’s consumers. It is overseen by a five-member board appointed by the governor and the Legislature. For more information about Covered California, please visit www.CoveredCA.com.
