Republican-led states brace for Oct. 1

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s health agency recently urged county social services departments to discuss the insurance exchanges when people come in seeking food stamps or child care help. The Republican governor’s administration also encouraged social services agencies to offer space as available to navigators.

In South Carolina, which also left advertising and running the exchange to the federal government, the state Medicaid agency ramped up its call center to handle 50 percent more calls as people have questions about the law, deputy director John Supra said.

In Florida, Broward County commissioners last week ignored the state-imposed ban on letting PPACA navigators into county health departments and voted to let navigators and other exchange outreach workers enter county offices, including health departments.

‘We’ve encountered many, many issues with this, and this is a breakthrough for us to be able to go into the libraries, the health departments,” said Jerson Dulis, who was trained to help enroll people in the state exchange. He works for Broward Community & Family Health Centers Inc., which received a federal grant to provide consumers understand and enroll in health insurance plans.

The Republican governors in states like South Dakota and Pennsylvania have taken a more neutral approach to the exchanges.

In South Dakota, the state Division of Insurance has certified Avera Health Plans, Sanford Health Plan and Dakotacare to offer plans, said Melissa Klemann, the division’s assistant director of life and health insurance.

South Dakota is not putting any resources into marketing the health exchange. Klemann said she’s not sure whether residents will flock to the site Tuesday or whether traffic will build over time.

“I think we’re all anxious to see what that Oct. 1 date will do,” Klemann said.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration has remained on the sidelines. His administration spent virtually nothing to the exchange program and received nothing from the federal government to market it, either.

But Antoinette Kraus, director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, a group of about 60 organizations that is helping lead the enrollment effort in Pennsylvania, noted that the Corbett administration has not sought to block efforts to educate or enroll people, as some states have actively done.

In Indiana, Republican Gov. Mike Pence has been no fan of PPACA. Last year, he equated the Supreme Court ruling upholding part of the law with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. However, his new administration has still been working to provide some key backup ahead of the opening of the exchange.

The state has hired, temporarily, 150 new caseworkers to handle an expected spike in residents seeking Medicaid coverage via the “woodwork effect” — an increase of enrollees. The state also has run tests on its phone system to ensure it will be able to handle call volumes.

See also:

• Senate rejects House spending bill PPACA conditions
• Exchange builders head to delivery room
• California’s uninsured attract PPACA trackers