After more than a year revving up for the Oct. 1 launch of the Michigan Health Insurance Marketplace only to face error messages and other computer glitches during the first few days, field workers charged with assisting consumers are reworking plans and urging patience.
“This is the hand we were dealt, so we just move forward,” said Dizzy Warren, community outreach manager for Michigan Consumers for Healthcare. The Lansing-based nonprofit has been given $1.3 million in federal funds to help community groups and other nonprofits raise awareness about and enroll consumers in the marketplace.
The federally operated marketplace offers private insurance policies from 13 insurers and tax credits — at least for some Michiganders — to help pay for premiums and out-of-pocket costs. About 1.4 million Michiganders are uninsured and underinsured.
The marketplace, also called the state exchange, launched last Tuesday amid confusion and frustration, when the portals to it and 30 other state exchanges at www.healthcare.gov were overwhelmed.
Users had trouble setting up accounts, or they were able to get only so far in the process and were kicked out.
Staff at Michigan health clinics and community centers had scheduled appointments last week to help consumers find plans, but were forced to reschedule appointments.
The Obama administration, along with pro-health reform groups in Michigan, has tried to assure the public that glitches are being worked out.
Wait times have been cut in half, said Joanne Peters, the Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman.
“The work done to increase access to HealthCare.gov in light of the overwhelming demand is beginning to show results,” Peters said. “But we won’t stop until the doors to HealthCare.gov are wide open, and at the end of the six-month open enrollment, millions of Americans gain affordable coverage.”
Traffic continues to be high, and the federal site will shut down again at 1 a.m. Tuesday to add more server capacity, move an overstressed component from virtual machine technology to “powerful dedicated hardware” and to make more software changes. People have been able to enroll over the phone.
In Macomb County, organizers have decided to delay until later this month a key, four-hour event to raise awareness of the exchange.
Navigators — federally certified staff members who can help consumers enroll — will be on hand at the event Oct. 29 at MyCare Health Center in Mt. Clemens.
That’s later than originally hoped, said Ibraham Ahmed, project administrator at Linden-based Community Bridges Management, which organized the event as part of an effort to boost enrollment in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Genesee counties.
“We don’t want to try to put (the public) through a system that isn’t working. That doesn’t make sense,” Ahmed said.
Community workers said consumers have been understanding once they hear they have until Dec. 15 to enroll and still have coverage beginning Jan. 1.
In the meantime, staff members at Detroit-based Covenant Community Care clinics have helped clients log into Michigan’s estimator, a calculator that can give consumers a rough idea of policy costs in their area and how much they might get in tax credits to help them reduce that price.
Andrea Bell, an outreach coordinator for Covenant, said that the estimator helps keep clients engaged, despite the initial frustration.
“That estimator is helping them to at least know yes, they’re qualified, and yes, there is a tax credit and for some there is no cost, and not to get wrapped up in the negativity” around the computer delays, she said.
The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, which regulates insurers, has received complaints about the marketplace. But it’s a federally operated exchange “so there is only so much we can do at the state level,” said spokesman Caleb Buhs.
He said state staff is reminding consumers of the Dec. 15 deadline. Enrollment extends until March 31.
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