assisters

Rookie Report: How did New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Marketplaces Fare in Their Inaugural Enrollment Period?

Posted March 24, 2021 by CHIR Faculty

After seven enrollment cycles on HealthCare.gov, New Jersey and Pennsylvania both launched new state marketplace websites in time for the latest Open Enrollment Period. Both states saw increases in marketplace enrollment over previous years. To understand how this transition went for Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents, and to extract potential lessons for the states that are transitioning to running their own marketplaces, we sought insight from people on the ground: consumer assisters.

CHIR Holds Navigator Twitter Q&A: Top 5 Questions

Posted November 19, 2018 by Olivia Hoppe

The Center on Health Insurance Reforms held its first-ever Tweetchat in light of the release of our updated Navigator Resource Guide. We asked navigators, assisters, and consumers to ask us questions they had about Open Enrollment or health insurance generally. Here are five questions participants had about health insurance.

Affordable Care Act Navigators: Unexpected Success During 2018 Enrollment Season Shouldn’t Obscure Challenges Ahead

Posted January 12, 2018 by CHIR Faculty

Heading into open enrollment for 2018 marketplace coverage, experts predicted far fewer people would sign up for coverage. Despite the obstacles working against a successful open enrollment, sign-ups came close to last year’s tally: federally facilitated marketplaces (FFMs) logged 8.8 million plan selections, including close to 2.5 million new consumers, by the close of open enrollment on December 15th, nearing the 9.2 million plan selection from the previous year in just half the time. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe and JoAnn Volk take a look at what explains the better-than-expected results.

Enrolling in Health Insurance is Complicated. That’s Where Navigators Can Help.

Posted December 19, 2017 by Olivia Hoppe

With the close of Open Enrollment for federally run marketplaces last week, preliminary reports suggest this year’s total sign-ups will be fewer than prior years. The Administration also recently released data that calls into question the value of Navigators, noting that they accounted for less than 1 percent of customers who were signed up by federally funded navigator organizations in 2016. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe explains how these data fail to tell the whole story.

Lots of Changes for 2018 Marketplace Enrollment Mean Confusion for Consumers

Posted June 21, 2017 by CHIR Faculty

Open enrollment will be here sooner than we know it. But this year’s open enrollment, will be quite different from previous years due to numerous policy changes and proposed budget cuts to marketplace consumer outreach, assistance, and enrollment system under the Trump administration. These changes will make it much more confusing for consumers and place much more of a burden on the assisters that help them. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn summarizes some of the change in store for 2018 open enrollment.

Kaiser Family Foundation Survey on Assister Programs Reflects Signs of Progress – and Opportunities for Improvement

Posted June 13, 2016 by CHIR Faculty

Assister programs and brokers play an integral role of navigating consumers through the marketplace enrollment process. Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent survey of these stakeholders indicates these programs will continue to be needed given the knowledge gaps that still exist among consumers and the high proportion of consumers who seek help with renewal. Current legal intern and guest blogger, Emma Chapman (Georgetown JD/MPP, expected 2018), summarizes the main findings of the survey.