Help available as second ACA enrollment period opens
Help is available to locals who want to sign up for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obama Care.
The second ACA open enrollment period opened Nov. 15 and runs through Dec. 15. Those who sign up during the period could have coverage as early as Jan. 1.
Segmented Marketing Services Inc., owned by Lafayette Jones and his wife Sandra Miller Jones, has been working to sign-up the uninsured and underinsured and hosting ACA workshops in order to train representatives to send out into the community to spread the word.
Jones
“We are continuing our intense period of enrolling folks who have been uninsured in our community,” Lafayette Jones said. “We have been sending representatives out to churches, barber shops, beauty salons and all over the community. We will be doing so throughout the enrollment period.”
Segmented Marketing is hosting a series of ACA sign-up events around the city, including one at Hanes Memorial CME Church, 819 Highland Ave., on Sunday, Dec. 14 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Rev. Clarence Cox III is pastor of church. He expects the session will draw a lot of interest, as many in his flock and the surrounding community lack health coverage.
Cox
“They hear about it, and there is the assumption that they can’t afford any of it,” Cox said. “This is one of those things that show people need to be educated to what the Affordable Care Act is.”
Two years after its passage, the Affordable Care Act is still a political hot potato, with conservatives constantly threatening to strike down the law. Cox said the session at his church will give residents the facts about various health plans available to them without the political rhetoric often attached to the ACA.
“Personally, I am offended that it has become more of a political issue and instrument for certain people who are not for it. I want to make sure our church is doing what we can to get the information out to those in the surrounding community,” he said. “It has become so politicized that people are forgetting about the benefits that are for the very people who can’t afford to purchase traditional health care, who are not employed or receiving health care through their employer.”
According to government officials, the second ACA enrollment period has a new and improved application process, one that should prevent the widely criticized headaches many experienced at www.Healthcare.gov earlier this year.
“It’s better than ever,” Jones said. “The process of enrollment has really been streamlined, redundancy has been taken out and the folks who designed the websites have done an excellent job of understanding the challenges.”
ACA sessions will also be held at First Baptist Church, 700 Highland Ave., on Tuesday, Dec. 9 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Diggs Memorial United Holy Church, 125 N. Graham Ave., will hold an ACA session on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (The Diggs session is not being sponsored by Segmented Marketing.
To learn more about the ACA or to peruse or sign-up for coverage, go to www.healthcare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596. For more information on the Segmented Marketing Services Inc.’s Affordable Health Care community program, call 1-866-341-5283, text 336-692-2151 or send an email at SMSiPartners@smsi-net.com.
