By Nuoya Zhou
Open enrollment in Affordable Care Act (ACA) health exchanges begins next Wednesday, Nov. 1. But because the Trump administration has stopped publicizing the program, not many people are aware of the opportunity for coverage and subsidies.
After Republicans in Congress failed to pass legislation to repeal and replace the ACA, President Trump said it would “implode” on its own. The political climate has created uncertainty in health insurance marketplaces, driving up costs and pushing insurers away from the Rockbridge area.
The enrollment period lasts six weeks and ends on Dec. 15, which is much shorter than in past years. Before, the enrollment continued throughout January.
Additionally, the ACA website to help people sign up has planned outages where consumers will not be able to access the site at certain times, though Rockbridge Area Health Center (RAHC) is trying to help fill that gap.
The local nonprofit health center, a former “free clinic” on Lee Highway north of Lexington, is committed to helping local residents in need to sign up for the ACA, regardless of age, income, or insurance status, said Katie Hall, Marketing and Communications Specialist at RACH.
RAHC has trained application counselors available for free appointments. People don’t have to be patients there to see counselors.
“What we strive for is helping people that are uninsured and insured,” said RAHC Outreach and Enrollment Specialist Justan Slagle. “They don’t need to stress about not being able to see somebody because we will still see them.”
According to Virginia Health Care Foundation, about 13.3 percent of people in the Valley region of Virginia from age 19 to 64 were uninsured in 2015. If that’s the case in the Rockbridge area, it means nearly 5,000 adults were uninsured.
“Some people are having to choose between having to pay electric bill versus going to the doctor to have something checked out,” said Hall. “That’s possibly preventing them from going to work. I think the biggest barrier is access and being able to afford health care.”
As a private and federally qualified health center, RAHC receives grants to offer discounted programs that alleviate medical costs and give people free access for counseling. It is also a stop on Maury Express for people who don’t have cars.
In August, Anthem Blue Cross and Optima both announced plans to pull out of Virginia for Obamacare’s health exchanges in 2018, which would have left this option in Rockbridge County and other places in Virginia with no health insurance providers. The companies said they could no longer afford or plan on a stable framework.
“I think there were some concern on Anthem’s part that they wouldn’t be getting the tax credit,” Hall said. “It is that tax credit [that] goes to insurance companies to help with the cost of the plan.”
But Anthem had second thoughts.
“When we recently learned through our discussions with state regulators that many Virginians, mostly in rural areas of the state, would not have any insurers offering plans through the exchange, we decided to refile our original plan and to return to an additional 63 cities and counties,” Jeff Ricketts, president of Anthem, said in a press release.