As insurance rollout begins, a crush online but not in person

Source: The Wisconsin State JournalOct.儲存 01--Rollout of the new health insurance exchanges began slowly in Madison Tuesday morning, with just a trickle of people dropping by the Dane County Job Center for enrollment help.Trained counselors at the center said they were relieved the turnout was light because computer problems kept people from accessing the online federal application form."I'm ready to sign up," said Edna Dobbs, 56, of Sun Prairie, who stopped by the job center mid-morning."But the computers are down right now," Lorraine McGowan, one of the counselors, told her.The computer problems were two-pronged. The county puts filters on computers at the job center to bar public access to inappropriate Internet sites. Those filters inadvertently kept users from accessing the insurance application form at .healthcare.gov.But that hardly mattered, because part of the federal website had gone down early on Tuesday, apparently due to a glut of people trying to sign on across the country. People could still access general information on the site, just not the actual enrollment form.Tuesday was the first day people could enroll in the federally subsidized insurance exchanges, although there was nothing particularly pressing about the date. Coverage does not begin until Jan. 1, and the open enrollment period extends through March.Access Community Health Centers, which serves mostly low-income people, has hired 10 temporary workers to help people navigate the system, said Elissa Sprecher, outreach and enrollment coordinator at Access. She and three others staffed the job center Tuesday. Other counselors are available at clinics run by Access.All are called certified application counselors, meaning they've completed 16 hours of training and passed an exam for the state portion of the insurance rollout, plus completed a five-hour federal online training course and passed a federal exam, Sprecher said.At the job center, the counselors staff a room with 25 computers, all dedicated to the insurance exchanges. While people can sign up independently at their homes, the job center offers access to compu儲存倉ers, as well as one-on-one assistance. Nine people stopped in during the first two hours of Tuesday morning."I need some kind of health care, so I think this is a good step forward for the country," said Louise Smith, 57, of Madison, an administrative assistant who said she's been unemployed since a layoff more than a year ago. She has a computer at home but had specific questions about her situation she wanted answered in person.Dobbs, the woman ready to sign up, said she is attending classes to become a certified nursing assistant but has no income and no insurance. She found out she may qualify for BadgerCare, the name for Wisconsin's Medicaid program, though she won't know for sure until mid-November, she said.Chongtou Vang, 59, of Cottage Grove, said he recently took early retirement from his job but now must find insurance coverage to bridge the gap until Medicare coverage kicks in."The premiums in the private market right now are too high for me to pay, so this sounds pretty good," he said. His primary concern right now, he said, was whether the Affordable Care Act will go forward given Republican attempts to defund it.Sprecher said she and her fellow counselors did not know what to expect Tuesday morning -- long lines or no one. She did not read much into the light turnout."I think a lot of people may not be sure yet whether this affects them," she said. "Perhaps word of mouth hasn't gotten out yet."Also, Access had been preparing its patients for weeks for the rollout, so some of the people most likely to sign up may already have received the information they needed, she said.The trained counselors will be available at the job center, 1819 Aberg Ave., weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through March. Additionally, there will be an enrollment fair every Thursday at the job center from 1 to 6 p.m. beginning Oct. 10. Representatives from health insurance companies will be available at the fairs.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) Visit The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) at .wisconsinstatejournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉最平