At both HAN meetings, Brian Rosman from Health Care For All (HCFA) led a discussion about the next steps in Health Care Reform. Before he spoke, outreach workers exchanged stories about how some of new policies in Health Care Reform are working out in practice.
We’ve asked you to do a lot in the last few weeks, in addition to all you do anyway. Thank you. You’ve probably heard that funding for the MassHealth Outreach and Enrollment Grant program, line item 4000-032, is still in the budget, which means the commitment to your work continues.
Please call your legislators today and tell them how important outreach and enrollment work is to the success of health care reform. Line item 4000-0352 - which funds outreach and enrollment, and Community Partners - is in jeopardy.
Enrollments usually slow down during the summertime, but this year, outreach workers are seeing increasing numbers of people needing help. At our July HAN meetings, we also had the opportunity to have some dialogue with Rebecca Balder and Carolyn Minkin of the Health Safety Net about upcoming changes.
"Outreach & enrollment" means much more than putting up posters and helping people fill out MassHealth applications. Recently, over the course of a two hour appointment, my supervisor and I counseled one household on eleven different public health insurance, subsidy and care programs. We helped them file four separate applications to five different insurance programs, putting together a patchwork of care options to cover the hole left by the loss of employer-sponsored insurance.
Debate begins May 21; support is needed.
New language will stabilize outreach and enrollment funding, broaden scope
Our last Boston HAN meeting came in the wake of the Connector Board’s decisions to shift more of the costs of Health Care Reform to consumers by raising co-pays and premiums for Commonwealth Care. Advocates continue to oppose these cost increases and push for sharing the costs more evenly with businesses. Meanwhile, outreach and enrollment workers are seeing an increase in administrative barriers to enrollment in Commonwealth Care and MassHealth.
A new pamphlet offers step-by-step guidance, just in time for taxes.
Nikki Riel from the Women's Health Network in Franklin County sent me contact info for specific places at MassHealth (click the link for a printable PDF), including the Estate Recovery and Appeals units and various premium-paying programs.
