Get help to apply for health insurance, refund on the ACA Marketplace

Oct. 11--Thanks to a grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, a group of trained advocates in Western North Carolina will be able to continue helping individuals navigate the federal marketplace set up under the Affordable Care Act.

Funding was first cut for advertising the marketplace, and this year, federal funding for providing assistance in using the system was cut from $36 million to $10 million, said Jan Plummer, who has lead the health care navigator program in the seven westernmost counties under Mountain Projects.

North Carolina only received $500,000 for statewide navigator assistance, and the entire sum went to N.C. Legal Aid, she said, meaning the six navigators working in the westernmost counties would have been defunded without the grant.

"Now we'll be able to operate through September 2019," Plummer said, noting the open marketplace enrollment period is from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15 for those who will need health insurance in 2019. "We cannot call ourselves navigators because that is a program funded by government dollars, so we applied to be a certified application counselor."

Plummer said she assisted her first client signing up for the federal health insurance program in Oct. 2013, and has been with the program ever since.

She and the five other navigators who will be with the Mountain Projects program will still have the same training and certification, but will merely have a different title, she added.

In addition to helping individuals take advantage of the marketplace rates that allow those without access to insurance due to pre-existing conditions or a prohibitive cost become covered, the application counselors can help clients receive a refund, Plummer said.

Federal legislation removed a requirement that penalized those who failed to buy health insurance, and allowed for a refund under certain circumstances.

All who paid the penalty on their income tax were eligible for a refund because there has only been one insurance company bidding for customers on the marketplace in the county, Plummer explained.

While taxpayers must go through their income tax preparation company or, if they do their own taxes, file the paperwork themselves, navigators have helped them get an exemption certificate number, which is the first step to applying for a refund.

"We've gotten more than $1 million in our region," Plummer said, "and will be able to continue offering that assistance through the grant."

To apply for assistance, contact Mountain Projects at 452-1447.

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