COVID SEP STARTS MONDAY!
This Monday, February 15, 2021 the COVID Special Enrollment Period (SEP) will begin. This SEP will last for three months ending on May 15, 2021. If you want to read more about last month’s executive order which led to the COVID SEP for the federally facilitated marketplace, check out our news item. The COVID SEP announced by the Biden administration only affects people who live in states that are on the federally facilitated marketplace (healthcare.gov). However, many State Based Marketplaces (SBMs) have also announced that they will be opening COVID SEPs as well and at least one state (Maryland) announced this week that they were extending a previously announced COVID SEP. For a full list of SBMs who have announced COVID SEPs, check out our blog post.
In preparation for the COVID SEP, AAHD has a project with Community Catalyst and other partners in conducting outreach to educate individuals about health insurance enrollment through the ACA Marketplace and Medicaid. This outreach includes graphics like the one below which highlight the new opportunities to enroll due to COVID. These graphics are available in the Community Catalyst Outreach Hub.
If you want to read more about the COVID SEP, check out this week’s blog post from Community Catalyst. Additionally, Community Catalyst has created a social media toolkit for the new COVID SEP.
A new report from the Urban Institute indicates that many people that do not have insurance have not even tried to enroll in coverage through the ACA marketplace or in Medicaid. To learn more about this report or for a link to it, check out our news item.
While the new COVID SEP is exciting, extended enrollment is nothing new for Medicaid as it has year-round enrollment. Last month, we announced a new project in partnership with Community Catalyst in which we will be conducting Medicaid outreach to raise awareness about the potential enrollment in the program for individuals without health insurance. If you want to learn more about the Medicaid Outreach Partnership, check out our blog post.
Did you conduct enrollment assistance during OE8? If so, consider filling out the Young Invincibles’ Post-OE Survey.
There’s been a lot in the news about the potential COVID relief bill which Congress is considering. If you’re looking for summary of what this legislation could do for the ACA marketplaces, check out the blog post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Additionally, the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families has a report out on what the law could mean for Medicaid expansion.
Previously, we had highlighted the 1332 waiver filed by the state of Georgia related to its ACA marketplace. A new blog post from the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) highlights a legal challenge which has been filed challenging this waiver.
If you missed it last week, we highlighted a blog post by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) where our work on NIH’s All of Us Research Program was featured. Since 2018, AAHD has been doing outreach to the disability community on the All of Us Research Program. The NACCHO blog post outlines the rationale found in our Call to Action for why people with disabilities should get involved with the All of Us Research Program. If you want to read more about AAHD’s efforts in this program, check out the All of Us page on our website.
Archives of our weekly updates are available on the NDNRC website.