Ga. Leaders Discuss Lack Of Navigators

July 24--With an uncertain number of trained people available to help enroll people under the Affordable Care Act next time around, a Georgia enrollment advocacy group met Wednesday with Augusta community leaders to talk about ways to partner and strategies to reach out and educate those who need the insurance.

The Georgia arm of Enroll America met with about a dozen community groups to talk about what worked last time, what more can be done, and where and how to find the uninsured who would need to be enrolled when the next open enrollment period begins Nov. 15.

Hanging over the meeting was the threat of state law limiting the number of people who will be employed as navigators, those trained to help enroll people in the Marketplaces. One of two groups in Georgia who received grants to help provide navigators was the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences, which hired 12 navigators. But earlier this year, the Georgia Legislature passed a bill essentially barring anyone who is a state entity or employee from serving as a navigator, which would essentially eliminate the UGA program, said Danté McKay, the state director for Enroll America.

"We're trying to figure out who is going to step up to fill those shoes," said McKay, who said he did not know who else applied this time.

Unlike many other states, Georgia requires navigators to pass a criminal background check, undergo training and be licensed by the state. That can cost on average about $300, McKay said, which had a "chilling effect" on some would-be navigators. "It was just an unforeseen expense that most people couldn't accommodate," he said.

But if the community pools its resources together, that can be overcome, said the Rev. Melvin Ivey of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Augusta.

"If they're pulling these people, we've got to replace these people," he said. "I think it is a necessity. Finances should not be the reason we can't do it."

Augusta itself had about three navigators working last enrollment period and it was "very busy," said navigator Terri Gant with Medical Associates Plus at Belle Terrace. A lot of it was education at first, then trying to reach people through a lot of events with different community partners like churches and the Augusta Library, she said.

"We could not have done what we did without our partners," Gant said.

"That partnership was huge," said Craige Taylor Burton, an enrollment specialist at Christ Community Health Services.

The need is out there, said Melita Lowe, the family and community engagement manager for CSRA EOA Head Start. In the 11 counties it serves, there are thousands of families, many of them in rural counties that lack not only health care but access to computers and even basic transportation, she said.

In the rural areas, there's not a lot of resources," Lowe said. Even just getting information or a flyer into the group's monthly newsletter would be helpful, she said.

But social media is also a powerful tool to reach people, as recent elections have shown, said Mayor-elect Hardie Davis.

"These are campaign tools," he said. "This is not get out and vote. This is get out and get insured."

Latinos in particular did not get the message last time and part of that is the language barrier, said Ed Acevedo of the Asociación Cultural Hispanoamericana. About three-fourths didn't know there was financial assistance for getting the insurance, he said.

"These are challenges, or I would say opportunities, to make it better the next time around," Acevedo said.

Just looking at the poor health outcomes in Augusta should motivate people to get involved, Davis said.

"That should warrant private investment on its own to say, 'How can we help lift this?'" he said. "I will offer help to try to help lift that."

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