The Affordable Care Act: A potential ‘life-changer’ for people living on low incomes

In partnership with King County Public Health, Solid Ground’s Family Assistance program has been engaged in outreach and education on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since open enrollment began October 1. As the December 23 enrollment deadline to receive benefits starting January 1 approaches, it becomes more important than ever to reach out to King County residents.

Despite the well-reported problems with the federal website, HealthCare.gov, Washington State’s exchange site, wahealthplanfinder.org, has had relative success enrolling people, though not without its own challenges. While the state exchange site has had its hiccups, it is still performing better than the national federal enrollment website. As of December 3, wahealthplanfinder.org enrollment topped 175,000 while the federal exchange, which serves 36 states, enrolled about the same.

Stephanie Earhart, Family Assistance Lead Benefits Attorney, is managing Solid Ground’s Education and Outreach program for the ACA. According to her, both the federal and state website glitches are causing the most issues with enrollment.

“The problem with wahealthplanfinder.org is rooted in the fact that, in order to confirm an identity, a cross-check must be performed through the HealthCare.gov website – which also hooks up to the IRS, Social Security and immigration sites. If anything goes wrong with those hubs, we get an error code on our end. People enrolling will then be told to call the customer center, but those centers are overloaded with calls,” Stephanie explains.

Another option is to file a paper application. However, paper applications must still be entered into the same system, and thus will experience the same glitches consumers are struggling with. Stephanie mentions that in November, “only 17% of those on existing Medicaid plans had renewed them – likely because those renewals were filed as paper applications. There is a backlog now, and who knows when those will get processed.”

Instead, she encourages King County residents to use the Washington exchange website if possible or find an assistor to help set up an account and work through any issues that might arise.

Neighborcare Health has partnered with Solid Ground, acting as in-person assistors for those needing help with enrollment and navigating the website. A Neighborcare assistor provides enrollment support at Solid Ground every Tuesday between 1-5pm, or you can call 206.548.3013 to schedule a free appointment with an eligibility specialist at a local Neighborcare Health clinic.

One of the Education and Outreach program’s most important goals is to end confusion about ACA and the benefits offered – which is still causing people to hesitate to enroll. “I still talk to clients who have no idea about the Affordable Care Act, or what they have heard is bad. As an agency, that’s one of the reasons Solid Ground is supporting education and outreach. We want people to know that this is actually a good thing. We support it. You can trust it,” Stephanie expresses. She recommends the King County Public Health website as a great resource for more information on all the wonderful benefits – such as the 10 Essential Benefits – Affordable Care coverage has to offer.

We are spreading the message to clients, friends and family: ‘Coverage is here!’ To Stephanie – and many others at Solid Ground who work directly with people who qualify for the new free or low-cost health insurance – the implementation of the ACA is a blessing. Stephanie declares that, “Coming from the work I’ve done for the last 10 years, fighting to get people medical coverage – very sick people who don’t meet the disability standard – the fact that I can say, ‘You can get covered now,’ that’s my focus. For those living on low incomes, this is going to be a life-changer. True social justice.”

If you would like us to visit your community organization to do an education/outreach event, please contact Stephanie Earhart with the Family Assistance program: stephaniee@solid-ground.org or 206.694.6714.