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Preliminary enrollment numbers announced for Get Covered Illinois
Get
Covered Illinois stresses education and engagement efforts as
federal enrollment numbers reinforce consumer-focused strategy
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[November 15, 2013]
CHICAGO — The U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services released preliminary enrollment numbers
Wednesday for the federal Affordable Care Act. The figures indicate
that 30,901 applications have been completed from Illinois and 1,370
people have selected a private health care plan through Get Covered
Illinois in the first month of operation, starting Oct. 1.
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 The federal numbers also showed that 11,603 individuals have been
found eligible for financial assistance and 19,447 have been
preliminarily determined eligible for Medicaid through the federal
Healthcare.gov website.
Illinois officials pointed to several other key indicators
measuring awareness and interest in the early weeks of the Get
Covered Illinois campaign, among them more than 400,000 website
visits and more than 190,000 users of the screening tool determining
eligibility for Medicaid or private insurance. In addition, the
state's new ABE website for Medicaid has received more than 47,000
applications, which are in addition to those reported Wednesday by
the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The ABE website
takes its name from "application for benefits eligibility."
"When we launched Get Covered Illinois six weeks ago, we called
it a process rather than an event," said Jennifer Koehler, executive
director of Get Covered Illinois. "We said that our goal of creating
a culture of coverage in Illinois would take months and years, not
weeks. Based on the reports from our outreach team in the field and
community-based partners across the state, we expected that the
early enrollment numbers would be in this range."
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 Get Covered Illinois officials have concentrated resources in the
field, as grantee partners around the state conduct local activities
designed to educate communities on the benefits of enrolling and the
educational resources available to help consumers understand their
options and how to shop.
"We have consistently urged Illinois residents to take their time
getting educated, rather than make an impulsive decision on
something as important as health care for themselves and their
families," Koehler said. "When Healthcare.gov is ready to handle
more users, we expect to see more website traffic to Get Covered
Illinois and significant growth in our enrollment numbers."
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[Text from news release from
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services] |
