To help the uninsured navigate the new health insurance exchanges, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act established a few consumer assistance programs.
The programs fall within the categories of navigators, in-person assisters and certified application counselors. The federal government provided a considerable amount of funding to support those programs. Prior to the beginning of open exchange enrollment last year, HHS distributed $67 million in navigator funding to 105 state and federal PPACA marketplace navigator organizations, including some hospitals and health systems. The federal government also provided more than $3 billion in federal block grants to help states with overall exchange creation efforts, including consumer assistance programs. In July 2013, the government also awarded $150 million in funds to consumer assistance programs in community health centers across the country.
In a study released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Leonard Davis Institute analyzed data from various sources on state-level funding of consumer assistance programs and uninsured rates. Here are 10 key takeaways from the study.
1. Overall, consumer assistance funds spent per uninsured person ranged from $4.24 in
2. The federally facilitated marketplaces showed relatively little variation in consumer assistance spending, from $4.24 in
3. The state-based and federal-state partnership marketplaces demonstrated much more variation in spending, from $6.18 in
4. Although 63 percent of the uninsured population before the exchanges opened for enrollment lived in the 29 states with federally facilitated marketplaces, those states received only 33 percent of the consumer assistance funding.
5. The 16 state-based marketplaces accounted for 50 percent of consumer assistance funds, despite having just 31 percent of the uninsured population.
6. The five federal-state partnership exchanges accounted for 6 percent of the uninsured and 17 percent of the funding.
7. The partnership exchanges had the highest consumer assistance spending per uninsured resident by far, averaging $31.53.
8. The state-based marketplaces spent an average of $17.15 per uninsured resident.
9. Federally facilitated marketplaces averaged the lowest amount of spending per uninsured person at $5.42.
10. It's still too early to tell how big of a part consumer assistance spending played in the exchanges' enrollment success. Other factors such as broad marketing campaigns and insurer enrollment initiatives could have played a part, according to the report. "It will probably be well into the next enrollment period before we understand just what has happened," Ms. Weiner says. "We're all very eager to see how this plays out over the course of the year."
More Articles on PPACA Consumer Assistance:
The Importance of Outreach: How Hospitals Can Help the Uninsured Get Coverage
Judge Rules State With Federally Run Exchange Can't Regulate PPACA Navigators
Missouri Senate Passes Bills for Health Navigator Qualifications