This is going to be such a huge job.
Get Covered America
Fresh produce wasn’t the only thing you could find at the Farmers Market [last] Saturday.
Volunteers with the Get Covered America campaign were passing out flyers and letting people know that starting Oct. 1, American citizens can enroll for low-cost health insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act.
“Get Covered America is a national grassroots campaign to educate people about the enrollment opportunities made possible by the affordable health care act,” volunteer Ian Davis said. “The enrollment period will start in October and today marks the 100 day countdown, so we’re doing a national day of action.”
Davis, an organizer with Get Covered Texas, says it’s important Texas is included.
“Texas has the most uninsured of any state in the country, so this is ground zero of really solving the health care problem,” Davis said.
Musician Daniel Smith is someone who doesn’t have health insurance.
“It’s just kind of like, don’t get hurt or sick you know,” Smith said.
Davis says there are plenty of people like Smith who don’t know they’re eligible.
“Over half the folks that are eligible for those benefits are unaware,” he said.
There were kickoff events like this around the country last weekend. BOR was at the Austin event. There was an event in Houston on Saturday the 22nd, right here in the Heights, but the only information I saw about it was an email that same morning. I hope we can do a better job of getting the word out than that. This is the only thing I saw in the Chronicle, so when I say “we”, I mean them, too. They did have a story on the federal push to get people enrolled on Tuesday, so perhaps they’ll be on the case going forward. We’ll see.
The actual enrollment period for the health insurance exchanges begins on October 1, and the race is on to get the word out. Something like 2.6 million Texans may qualify for insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, but they have to know about it and they have to know what to do to get the subsidies and enroll in an insurance plan. This is a massive national undertaking that will be done without the assistance of the state government here, for obvious reasons. One organization that may be helping to promote the exchanges will be the NBA, and I for one look forward to seeing what the Houston Rockets will do as part of that effort. (The NFL, and thus the Houston Texans are also in play.) Let’s hope we hear a little bit more about it between now and then.
My cynical view is that most of the uninsured will be perfectly happy to just go sit at the County health facilities when they need care, rather than try to figure out how the new scheme works. Then there are the folks who just don’t want to pay for insurance at all, since they can scam their way to free care from the County.
Then there are the folks who do actively seek out doctors who will charge lower prices for paying cash. Not to mention school districts and companies that self-insure.
My experience is that a lot of the uninsured are youngish folks who are self-employed, or work in small companies that do not offer health care benefits, or as independent contractors. They just don’t see how they can afford another $500 a month out of their budget for the premiums. And rather than scamming free care, I have known quite a few who put off getting care, resulting in worse health problems later on.