Federal funding to Wyoming ACA navigator group to be cut by 62 percent

Sept. 22--CHEYENNE -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently notified Enroll Wyoming, a nonprofit group that helps enroll people in the federal Affordable Care Act, that its funding would soon be cut by 62 percent.

Enroll Wyoming oversees a group of workers known as navigators. Navigators are specially trained to explain the ACA -- better known as Obamacare -- to consumers. They answer questions and help people find the best health-care coverage for them.

In Fiscal Year 2017, the navigator program received $426,000 in federal funding. But it will drop to $126,000 in FY 2018, according to Josh Hannes, the director of strategy and external affairs for Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

Hannes oversees the federal grant that operates the navigator program through Enroll Wyoming.

He learned about the drastic cuts Sept. 14 and said the new direction is far different from information he originally received from the federal Health and Human Services department.

He had been told that next year's funding would be pretty much the same as this year.

Funding was to be based on the navigators' ability to meet performance goals.

With that, Hannes said he expected to receive about the same amount because the navigators made all of their performance targets except one. In that target, the group came close, scoring 97 percent out of 100 percent.

But all that changed a few weeks ago when President Donald Trump's administration announced it would cut overall funding for the navigator program by 41 percent nationwide.

The amount provided for navigators across the country will drop from $62.5 million to $36.8 million.

The Trump administration is also cutting the ACA's nationwide advertising budget from $100 million to $10 million.

HHS officials have said the navigator program is ineffective and that the advertising program is a waste of taxpayer money, according to an article in the Washington Post.

But supporters of the navigator program say the large funding cuts will hurt the likelihood that more people can sign up for federal health insurance.

Hannes said he doesn't know who made the decision at the federal level that resulted in such drastic cuts. But these cuts exist to undermine the Affordable Care Act, he said.

"What we've been watching is the active sabotage of the Affordable Care Act," he said.

HHS also has reduced the number of days that consumers can sign up for Obamacare. The next sign-up period lasts six weeks, from Nov. 1-Dec. 15, shorter than other registration periods.

Hannes said the navigator team with Enroll Wyoming is meeting to determine how it will approach its work with fewer grant dollars.

"We're going to go full-steam ahead between now and open enrollment, and then we will regroup and decide what to do from there," he said. The navigators will continue to be there, helping consumers, he added.

Six full-time navigators with Enroll Wyoming currently travel through the state, according to Hannes.

"We have a large state in terms of physical space, and there is a lot of information to get out to people," he said.

Navigators give people the "information they need so they can make decisions that are best for their family."

In Wyoming, navigators helped enroll more than 25,000 residents in a health insurance plan who were not insured before, he said.

"It is upsetting that we've done good work and we had more work to do and we've been provided inadequate resources to do it," Hannes said.

Julia Heemstra is a navigator in Teton County. She said her county has the highest enrollment per capita in the ACA since the health insurance program was rolled out.

"If the Affordable Care Act marketplace would not be available, it would impact our community significantly," she said.

The Wyoming Health Council also operates a navigator program. No one could be reached at its Cheyenne office Thursday.

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