“What we’re seeing is confusion that’s been caused by not knowing if the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land or not,” said Maggie Norris Bent, navigator program director for Westside Family Healthcare in Delaware.
And, they say, their work is getting harder.
Without warning, the Trump administration in August cut federal grants by 40% to about 100 navigator groups. It slashed Obamacare advertising by 90%, and cut the sign-up period by half.
The president has also threatened to cut billions of dollars in insurance subsidies for low-income consumers, prompting insurers to pull out of scores of U.S. counties for 2018 or hike up monthly premium prices.
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Scaling Back Outreach
The Arizona Center for Rural Health, which employs six full- and part-time navigators, said it helped enroll 1,402 people in either individual health plans or the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled last year.
Navigator groups say they are often the main information source for groups like immigrant and rural communities who are just learning about the need for health insurance and how to use the benefits once they have them.
Two of those people were Julia and her husband Miguel, who requested their last names not be used. They plan to re-enroll for next year, but question whether their benefits could be taken away by an act of Congress or the administration. In fact, insurance contracts for 2018 are binding and any changes made to Obamacare would take effect in later years.
Sitting in a hospital bed in Tucson, Arizona, just days after learning she had diverticulitis, an inflammation of the digestive tract, Julia recounted how Losoya helped enroll her and Miguel in a private health plan which is subsidized by the federal government. Miguel lost his employer-sponsored coverage after a heart attack two years ago forced him to quit work.
“We live day by day,” said Miguel. “If they take Obamacare away, what are we supposed to do?”
This year, the Arizona Center for Rural Health’s budget was cut by 14%, forcing it to scale back enrollment efforts. The Epilepsy Foundation of Florida suspended all activity until it learned about two weeks later that its grant, worth about $1.7 million last year, was cut by more than $1 million.
In Michigan, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) – the state’s second-largest navigator group – said its grant was cut 36%, with no explanation. The state’s largest navigator, Enroll Michigan, received a 90% cut.