Thirteen of Alabama’s 14 health centers were awarded a combined nearly $2.5 million in grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration to help enroll the state’s uninsured in a health insurance plan.
The $150 million outreach and enrollment funding plan comes as part of the Affordable Care Act and is designated to be used to hire and train workers in all 50 states to educate and assist an estimated 3.7 million people with health care coverage.
These workers will help the uninsured determine whether a plan from the upcoming Health Insurance Marketplace (also referred to as the exchange), Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program is right for them. This role is different from the soon-to-be-funded navigators positions (see story, page 6), which focus strictly on the marketplace.
“Investing in health centers means that people in neighborhoods and towns across the country have one more resource to help them understand their insurance options and enroll in affordable coverage,” said Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius following the July 10 announcement of the grants.
Health centers serve communities that are not receiving full primary care services.
More than 20 million people use community health centers, according to HHS. Alabama’s health centers have 143 sites that served 329,381 patients in 2012, 47.63 percent of whom were uninsured.
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