The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Sep 5, 2013 10:36 PM
Beginning what will be a years-long effort to enroll Arizonans into health-insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, hundreds of volunteers will canvass Phoenix and Tempe neighborhoods this weekend seeking out some of the state’s 1 million uninsured residents.
Using mapping technology and political-campaign-style organization, the national non-profit group Enroll America is working with local health-care and social-service agencies to locate the uninsured, answer their questions about the federal health-care overhaul and get them signed up.
Enrollment begins Oct. 1 in Arizona’s expanded Medicaid program and the online insurance marketplace. Those who enroll by mid-December will be covered beginning Jan. 1.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to increase the number of people who have coverage,” said Allen Gjersvig of the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers. “But we know ... that huge numbers of people who are potentially eligible don’t know what’s coming.”
Public polling indicates that most people know little about the Affordable Care Act and that many view it negatively.
The ACA, which was signed into law in 2010, among other things, requires everyone to have health insurance and provides Internet marketplaces and subsidies to help low- and middle-income Americans pay for it. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 44 percent were unsure whether the law was still in place.
Political controversy continues to dog the law, including efforts by Republicans in Congress to withhold funding for its implementation.
Key challenges for Enroll America and the hundreds of local groups trying to educate Arizonans are to find the uninsured and then find the right message, with relatively few resources. The nearly 50 million uninsured Americans, including 1 million in Arizona, are a diverse group with widely different health-care needs, from young adults to those nearing retirement to people with chronic health conditions.
Enroll America is targeting Arizona and nine other states that have large numbers of uninsured residents, no state-based health exchange and no state-supported outreach effort. The other states are Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
They also chose Arizona because it has a network of community groups that have cooperated in the past on health-related issues, including outreach for the KidsCare health-insurance program.
But with just over three weeks until the enrollment launch, and many of the details about insurance plans and premiums still being finalized, organizers know they will have to circle back with most people to remind them. This is where the effort begins to look like a political campaign.
“We’ll have hundreds of conversations with Arizona consumers about what the new health-insurance marketplace means for them and their loved ones,” said Cheryl O’Donnell, state director of Enroll America.
“We want to be sure that once we interact with someone ... we can find them again. We want to be able to reconnect with people and make sure they know exactly where they can go to get insured.”
On Saturday, volunteers and Enroll America staff will make phone calls and walk neighborhoods, focusing on areas that U.S. Census Bureau data show have higher numbers of uninsured people.
“Get Out the Word Weekend” is intended to make initial contacts with people who could be helped by the health-care law and give people information about how to sign up. Tucson events are planned next week, including phone banks and neighborhood canvassing.
Among the points the volunteers will cover are eligibility requirements. People earning less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or $15,282, can qualify for expanded Medicaid coverage. Those who earn less than four times the poverty level, or up to $46,000, can receive sliding-scale subsidized coverage through the online marketplace.
Roughly 150,000 Arizonans have lost health insurance in the past two years, and an untold number have been unable to sign up since Gov. Jan Brewer and lawmakers froze a Medicaid program for low-income childless adults.
During the legislative session, Brewer and a bipartisan group of lawmakers passed Medicaid expansion, which will reopen the program and expand it to insure an estimated 350,000 more Arizonans.
Enroll America has enlisted more than 3,000 volunteers for this weekend’s canvass. Also taking part are some of the 300-plus Arizona organizations that make up the Cover Arizona coalition.
The coalition is the key strategy center for the Arizona effort and has been working closely with national groups to plan outreach, education and enrollment. Arizona health-care and non-profit groups have received limited federal grants — $2.1 million to hire health-care “navigators” and $2.3 million for community health centers to provide outreach and education statewide.
Other states have budgeted tens of millions of dollars to publicize and implement the law. But the people behind the Arizona effort say that, even with less-than-ideal funding, they welcome the challenge.
“When have we had this opportunity?” said Kim VanPelt of St. Luke’s Health Initiatives, which leads the coalition. “There’s a huge lack of resources. ... We are all rolling up our sleeves to do this.”
Reach the reporter at maryk .reinhart@arizonarepublic.com.
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