Peach Pulse Archive 2014

Open Enrollment Starts Saturday!

If you receive our Peach Pulse, there’s a good chance you already know that open enrollment for health insurance starts this Saturday, November 15 and goes through February 15.  Two important things to remember and share with your friends, family, colleagues, and community members:

• Even if you enrolled last year, you should go to healthcare.gov and shop around as your plan and premiums may have changed, or you may qualify for more financial assistance.
• Unless you qualify for an exemption, the penalty fee for not obtaining health insurance has risen to $325 or 2% of your income (whichever is higher).

If you have enrolled successfully through the Health Insurance Marketplace or remain uninsured and think you fall into the coverage gap (Not sure what that is?  Check out this Kaiser Family Foundation resource that explains the coverage gap!), please consider sharing your story.  Highlighting your stories is crucial to showing our lawmakers that the ACA is working and that we need to close the coverage gap so that no Georgian is left uninsured.

Nykita Navigates

With open enrollment starting this Saturday, our Navigator, Nykita, has been very busy!  GHF is excited to highlight some of Nykita’s materials, as well as some great work from our partner organizations.  The following materials are great to print out at home for your own use or if you’re helping others enroll.

• Affordable Care Act Basics: Guide to the Marketplace – Your basic guide to the ACA and the health insurance market place
• Marketplace Application Checklist – Your check list of what you should bring to your appointment with a Navigator (it’s longer than you think!).
• Health Insurance 101 – Not quite sure the difference between an HMO and a PPO?  How about co-insurance and co-pay?  This brochure will answer your questions.
• Enrollment Brochure – Important dates and numbers to remember throughout open enrollment.
• Navigator Resource Guide – Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) has launched its web-based Navigator Resource Guide on Private Health Insurance and the Health Insurance Marketplaces.  Targeted at Navigators, this is an amazing resource to help answer the tough questions.

Ready to get enrolled?  Check out Nykita’s schedule to see what events are happening in your neighborhood.  Check back often for updates.

Medicaid Minute

All eyes are on open enrollment, but for more than 400,000 Georgians, there still isn’t a health care option available.  Our elected state officials have the power to solve this problem. The health care law was designed to provide a path to health insurance to all Americans, but our state government has to opt in to make that a reality. Governor Deal and the state legislature have so far declined to use federal tax dollars that have already been set aside to provide coverage to those in the gap, but the opportunity to accept this money is still available.  We can opt in now by expanding Medicaid eligibility to all low-income Georgians who currently do not qualify.  Still need more details?  Click here to learn more.

It’s Not Too Late To Give!

As you know, Georgia Gives Day is in full swing!  The day isn’t over and as of sending time we are 30% of the way to achieving our goal of $1,000!  Your participation and support allows us to continue the work we do: educating the public and our lawmakers, providing valuable resources to partner organizations and leading the charge for closing the coverage gap in Georgia.  If you haven’t, please consider a small donation.  To donate, click here.