Alaska News

2 Alaska organizations awarded grants to help with health care enrollment

Two Alaska organizations will divide nearly $600,000 in new federal grants to help consumers navigate the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace in the second open enrollment period starting Nov. 15, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The United Way of Anchorage and the Alaska Primary Care Association are two of the 90 organizations across the country that will receive a total of $60 million to provide one-on-one assistance to people without insurance, said DHHS in a news release Monday.

Compared to the first round of grants, Alaska's funding shrank by about $7,000 in 2014. The state will continue with the same number of agencies designated as navigators this year, but the Alaska Primary Care Association will focus its efforts on rural regions in place of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, a 2013 grant recipient.

ANTHC did not resubmit its application for the grant this year. Monique Martin, government relations specialist with the nonprofit, said ANTHC is overrun with lifetime-exemption applications that Alaska Natives and American Indians can file to be excused from the Affordable Care Act mandate that all Americans must have health insurance or pay a fine.

Some of the exemption applications have been tangled in the federal health system since February, Martin said, which has turned a simple submittal into a lengthy process involving a series of follow-up calls.

"We're advocating for a fix," she said. "So we thought we've kind of got our hands full."

Nancy Merriman, executive director of the Alaska Primary Care Association, said the nonprofit stepped up because it already has a robust network of 28 community health centers scattered across the state that can offer enrollment assistance on the federally run healthcare.gov site.

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The funding will allow the organization to hire a full-time employee to coordinate outreach efforts. It will also grant sub-recipient rewards to up to 15 outside organizations interested in helping people decode the insurance process.

"We're interested in seeking organizations where there is a significant number of uninsured Alaskans and also where there may be pockets or geography that's not well-covered by health services," she said.

So far, roughly 16,000 Alaskans have signed up for individual insurance plans under the health care law. Nearly 13,000 people signed up through healthcare.gov, 88 percent of whom qualified for a federal subsidy that pays for a portion of the premium. The remaining 3,000 people signed up outside the marketplace and did not qualify for a subsidy.

According to DHHS, 21,915 Alaskans are eligible to enroll in a marketplace plan.

Sue Brogan, vice president of the United Way of Anchorage, said the nonprofit will capitalize on its experience working with the marketplace last year to capture the uninsured population in the state's largest city.

She said the United Way will continue hosting public events and will hire an additional navigator to staff its 211 information call line and answer health insurance questions.

"What we learned last time was that people need to start educating themselves early about all of the different definitions and things that are part of insurance," she said. "Then of course the navigators are there to assist and navigate any additional questions."

The length of the second open enrollment period is half of the first. People can enroll in health insurance plans from Nov. 15 through Feb. 15.

Alaskans can view health insurance plans on healthcare.gov before enrollment begins.

Last week, the Alaska Division of Insurance announced hefty insurance rate increases in 2015 for Alaskans who purchased individual plans under the Affordable Care Act. The increases ranged from 22 to up to 40 percent.

For more information on health insurance enrollment, call the United Way of Anchorage at 211 or 800-478-2221 or the Alaska Primary Care Association at 907-929-2722.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

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