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Connecticut Obamacare chief James Michel outside Thursday’s event: Started planning next steps even before “rescue plan” passed.
New Haven stands at an historic moment in enabling people at all income levels to afford good health care — if it can get the word out.
A senator and a Congresswoman came to New Haven’s Hall of Records Thursday to issue that challenge.
The pair — U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro — convened a roundtable (with rectangular tables) to highlight a little-noticed aspect of the just-passed $1.9 trillion Covid-19 pandemic relief bill (aka the “American Rescue Plan”): It will enable middle-class families, low-wage workers, unemployed people, and everyone in between to obtain health insurance or improved health insurance, and save $10,000 or more a year in the process.
It’s a once-in-a-generation lift for people who struggle to afford the health care they need.
But there’s a big if. As with other generous government programs (see: Obamacare), it’s tough getting promised aid into real people’s hands.
Chris Murphy at the Hall of Records Thursday: Spread the word.
“It’s not going to help,” Murphy said of the new health care assistance, “unless we let people know.”
Murphy and DeLauro invited a dozen advocates and health care providers whose agencies will now take the hand-off to try to make that happen. The agencies represented included the Cornell Scott and Fair Haven health centers, the city Health Department, Yale New Haven Health Foundation of Connecticut, the Universal Health Care Foundation, the Connecticut Health Foundation, and, perhaps most of all, Access Health CT, the state’s Obamacare/Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange.
Most of the attention over the pandemic relief bill has focused on $1,400 checks sent to all Americans and the expansion of the children’s tax credit.
But perhaps more significant are the potential boosts it offers for people seeking to obtain or upgrade their health coverage.
REINALDO GOEYENCHEA/ LA VOZ HISPANA
Murphy, DeLauro and Access Health CEO James Michel laid out some of those health highlights of the new law on Thursday. Highlights include:
• Anyone who loses their job and goes on unemployment insurance will be able to pay nothing to obtain health insurance.
• Anyone who loses a job and seeks to keep health insurance from the job through the COBRA program, will not have to pay anything for it for six months, through Sept. 30. The federal government will reimburse the employer for 100 percent of the cost. (After the six months, people will be eligible to obtain low-cost or no-cost health insurance through Obamacare.)
• An estimated 4 1/2 million more Americans will obtain health insurance, according to an estimate by the Urban Institute.
• Subsidies have been increased for people who obtain insurance through Obamacare exchanges like Access Health. The average family will save $100 a month on premiums, Murphy estimated. A family of four earning $120,000 year now paying $1,800 a month for subsidies will on average start paying $850 a month instead.
• Various subsidies will be available to cap people’s health insurance costs at 8.5 percent of their annual income.
• More people are now eligible to obtain insurance through the Obamacare exchanges like Access Health. Until now a family of four in Connecticut, for instance, could not sign up if it earned above $106,000 a year.
• New Haven’s neighborhood-based clinics that deal with uninsured patients are getting big boosts. The Fair Haven Health Center is receiving a $3.7 million injection of cash from the law. Cornell Scott Hill Health will get $5.8 million.
Mayor Justin Elicker and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro at Thursday’s roundtable, where they spoke of how “government is working” and New Haven has a partner in DC under the new administration.
But people have to find out about all this (and more) to reap the benefits. DeLauro noted how too often that didn’t happen after Congress passed Obamacare.
Access CT’s Michel reported that his agency began planning for the new law months before it passed. By May 1, he said, it hopes to start reaching out to current customers to let them know about their eligibility for reduced premiums and deductibles and their ability to purchase more generous plans. That way they can immediately reap the benefits of the law, which aims to get cash in people’s hands as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they would have to wait until the end of the year for a refund.
Access CT plans to track people receiving the COBRA subsidy in order to help move them to an exchange plan as soon as that six-month period ends, Michel said at Thursday’s gathering. It also plans to beef up its marketing budget and contact customers directly to inform them of changes.
It is also expanding the period in which people can enroll in plans or to make changes, another feature of the new federal law. Access CT expanded its current enrollment period to April 15. It’s launching a second period to run from May 1 through Aug. 15. Obamacare exchange enrollment periods had been shortened under the previous administration. (People can reach Access CT at 855 – 805-4325 or through the website.
The “roundtable” discussion ended with advocates offering suggestions for ensuring help trickles down to the grassroots.
Focused on the grassroots and long-term change: UHCF’s Frances Padilla and city Health Director Maritza Bond.
Universal Health Care Foundation CEO Frances Padilla urged DeLauro and Murphy to push the federal government to offer more assistance for small businesses through the exchanges, and to dovetail federal support with the work of state exchanges. She also noted that much of the law’s changes expire in two years; she emphasized the need for Congress to pass legislation to make changes permanent.
Connecticut Health Foundation CEO Tiffany Donelson spoke of the need for using plain language in spreading the word so people, especially in communities of color, understand what’s available and how to get it.
In response, city Health Director Maritza Bond said her department is gearing up to do just that. She promised a “multi-pronged” effort to enlist grassroots “trusted messengers” as well as to inform small business owners about new provisions of the law and help them navigate it.