Philly enlists nonprofit, Enroll America, to help consumers sign up for health insurance
Enroll America, Pennsylvania State Director Bill England, helping Philadelphians find affordable health care under the Affordable Care Act. (Nathaniel Hamilton/for Newsworks)
The City of Philadelphia is partnering with Enroll America, a nonpartisan nonprofit, to help educate consumers about how to sign up for insurance through the health exchange.
Philadelphia officials want to be prepared to answer questions about new health care options. And Mayor Michael Nutter said the partnership with Enroll America will train city staffers so they know their stuff.
“While there certainly have been some challenges at the beginning, things are moving along. Folks are signing up,” Nutter said. “They are certainly getting the information they need.”
There are 1.3 million Pennsylvanians without health insurance and 210,000 Philadelphians without coverage.
“What it’s really about is greater access. There’s another voice out here in another nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, just sharing information, helping people get signed up for health care,” said Nutter.
People have heard about the problems with Healthcare.gov, but might not know what’s available, said Bill England, state director of Enroll America.
“Generally what we hear is people don’t know if they are eligible and they don’t know how the program works, so we start talking about what the eligibility looks like,” he said. “We start talking about the benefits that are available.
“It’s a rich insurance package. We start talking about the fact that the pre-existing condition clause goes away,” England added. “These are all big things people want to know.”
Enroll America has started working with staffers across several city departments.
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