Groups worry about lack of funding, time for Obamacare enrollment

PHOENIX — The fifth-annual enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act kicks off in less than a month and health care enrollment groups are concerned that they have less time and less money to get the word out.

Arizona residents who are looking to enroll for the ACA, also known as Obamacare, can do so between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15 — half the time allowed compared to previous years.

The Trump administration has also cut the funding allowed for advertising, from $100 million last year to $10 million.

The funding for “navigators,” a group of people who help others sign up for the ACA, state Medicaid, SNAP and TANF programs, will also be cut about 40 percent.

Marcus Johnson, the state health policy and advocacy director for Vitalyst Health Foundation, which coordinates groups of “navigators,” said it is important, from a community perspective, for as many people as possible to enroll in health insurance.

“If promotions and marketing are muffled or suffocated, fewer people will enroll,” Johnson said. If fewer people enroll, he said, that would only leave sick people in the pool, increasing prices for everyone.

And if that cycle continues, Johnson added, healthy people would have less incentive to get coverage.

“That can lead to what’s known as adverse selection, or death spirals, where costs continue to increase, health insurers start to move out of markets and only sick populations are those who are left with really, really expensive health insurance coverage,” he said.

Johnson emphasised that it is important to remember that until Congress agrees on something different, the ACA is still the law, and it’s in all of our best interest to encourage people to sign up.

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