Public awareness of ACA health insurance pushed [The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester]

May 15--CONCORD -- The state is facing a major challenge in helping an estimated 125,000 uninsured residents get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act by March of 2014, according to expert witnesses before a joint House and Senate panel on Tuesday.

They urged lawmakers to accept federal grant money designed to finance public education campaigns and assist those who need help navigating the insurance options available through the federal health care reform law, which goes into full effect next year.

Tricia Brooks, a senior fellow at the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, and the founding chief executive officer of N.H. Healthy Kids Corporation, warned that the public is ill-informed, and the goal of enrolling the uninsured can only be accomplished with aggressive outreach.

"There is extremely limited awareness of what's coming," she said. "We think it's all over the media, but surveys show that three quarters of the people who are going to be helped with coverage options under reform don't know what's coming."

Brooks related her experience in leading the Health Kids nonprofit organization -- a children's health insurance program (CHIP) that began covering income-qualified kids in 1995. She coordinated all outreach and community-based application assistance for both Medicaid and CHIP.

"There was skepticism among families that there really was a low-cost option," she said. "They also encountered a lot of bureaucracy and red tape. And there is a lack of understanding of the value of insurance. I can't tell you how many times we heard, 'I don't have health insurance, my parents didn't, my grandparents didn't, and we're fine.'"

The clock is ticking on implementation of what has come to be known as Obamacare. The state only has six months to enroll people for the first year of coverage. "People are going to be subjected to the individual penalty if they haven't enrolled by March 31 of 2014," Brooks warned.

The House has included a $5.3 million in federal funds to pay for public awareness campaigns, community outreach, public speakers and "navigators" to help consumers evaluate health insurance options. The Senate is expected to accept the funds as well.

Bob Nash, president of the New Hampshire Association of Insurance Agents, said many of his members are ready to be trained and certified as brokers for health insurance under the ACA. He estimated that 95,000 of the uninsured in the state could be eligible for some sort of subsidy or small employer tax credit based on income and family size.

"We are going to urge every one of our members to take the ACA training online and become certified," he said.

The Joint Health Care Reform Oversight Committee also heard testimony on the Insurance Department's plan to work with insurance brokers and community health centers in the state to implement the new health care exchanges.

Republicans on the committee are concerned there is too much overlap between the federally funded and hired navigators and state-based agencies.

Most of those testifying on Tuesday said there will be plenty of work to go around, especially with the narrow time frames involved.

"Bring all the resources to the table that you can get," said Brooks, "because consumers will need that help, and they'll need it every way they can get it."

dsolomon@unionleader.com

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