CHICAGO (AP) — With the program known as “Obamacare” only weeks away from its key launch date, hectic preparations are in motion in communities across the country to deal with one of its major practical challenges: hiring and training a small army of instant experts who can explain the intricacies of health insurance to people who’ve never had it.
More than 100 nonprofits and related organizations, which specialize in everything from running soup kitchens to organizing farm workers, have been recruited by the federal government to sign up “navigators” to help the 30 million uninsured people who can now gain coverage.
Many of the groups have little expertise in health insurance. And the timeline for training the workers is tight. According to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), people can begin shopping among the new policies on Oct. 1. The enrollment period lasts six months. Coverage begins in January.
“I think there’s a lot of concern about whether, with all these state requirements, they are going to be ready to go,” said Katie Keith, a former research professor at Georgetown University, who has been tracking the heath care legislation. “You want people out there educating consumers.”
Deploying the guides for the uninsured is one of the first hurdles for the new health system as it transitions from an abstract political debate in Washington to a real-life process in communities. It is one of the steps government officials are concerned about as critics assert that the PPACA could become a “train wreck.”
The guides will be sent to community events with laptops to help people sign up for insurance online. They will work at food banks, shelters, churches and free clinics where the uninsured are likely to be.
The short time available for training raises questions about how prepared the workers will be to answer people’s questions about the different policies and government subsidies available. Community groups received the course materials for the 20-hour training only days ago. Many have just begun to post the openings on job boards.
A small scream came from Tara McCollum Plese when she was asked whether her group, Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, has hired any of the 45 workers authorized in its federal grant. “Ack! No,” she said Thursday. Her group has posted a job description, she said, and is now flooded with inquiries for the positions, which pay about $15 an hour. She’s since heard one worker has been hired.
Not one navigator has been hired yet under the $2 million grant obtained by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. The Illinois Eye Institute, which will help with enrollment in the Chicago area, plans to train a dozen staffers for the task.
The work will be more difficult than what most other temporary employees, such as census workers, do. The navigators must listen to a family’s real-world story, assess its income, and figure out eligibility for the Medicaid program, which provides health care for the poor, or for new tax credits, each with its own complicated rules.