Expert: Despite political turmoil over health care, it’s business as usual in New York

Steve Wood has a cheerful outlook on health insurance in New York state.

“All we have here in New York is good news,” said Wood, director of insurance programs at ACR Health, an organization that helps people find and purchase health insurance. “New York is good to people when it comes to insurance.”

Wood said although political turmoil over the fate of the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — creates confusion and makes his job more difficult, the fact that New York runs its own health insurance market has shielded the state from the most disruptive changes.

This year, the Trump administration shortened the open enrollment period for Healthcare.gov — the national health insurance marketplace established by the ACA — to six weeks instead of 12. In August, the Trump administration announced cuts to the advertising budget for the ACA, and in September also stopped funding local health care search programs.

But New York state officials, activists and representatives of local health insurance search programs such as ACR Health said these federal changes have had little effect on outreach and enrollment efforts because New York funds its own health care search programs and runs its own exchange.

“The federal announcement to cut spending on advertising applies only to states that rely on the federal health insurance Marketplace. It does not impact New York,” said Jill Montag, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Health, in an emailed statement. “The funding for (the NY State of Health) ad campaign is consistent with previous funding levels.”

Though the national open enrollment period for 2018 — which began on Nov. 1 — ends on Dec. 15, New York state’s open enrollment period extends an extra six weeks until Jan. 31, 2018.

The fact that New York has different rules than other states can cause confusion for some residents, Wood said.

“We see things going across Facebook constantly — ‘remind people it’s Nov. 1 through Dec. 15,’ and I always have to put in there, ‘But in New York, it’s until Jan. 31,’” Wood said. “So I think it’s kind of muddying the water.”

A study published in October by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only 15 percent of uninsured adults in the U.S. knew when the enrollment period started. Even fewer were aware of the deadline in their state.

Despite these concerns, ACR Health — which serves residents of nine central New York counties, including Onondaga County — has helped about 40,000 New York residents sign up for health insurance over the past four years, Wood said.

About 4 million New York residents have received coverage through the state’s health insurance exchange — known as New York State of Health — according to the New York State Department of Health’s website. This totals about 20 percent of the state’s population.

Now, with the open enrollment period in full swing, Wood said ACR Health and other organizations are using all the resources at their disposal to reach out to the uninsured and encourage them to sign up for coverage.

Because of the diversity of the counties it serves — from relatively urban Onondaga County to Lewis County, which boasts a higher population of cows than people — ACR Health uses a wide range of strategies to reach out to uninsured people.

For instance, Wood noted that in Jefferson County his colleagues rely on farmers markets and other community events to spread the word, whereas in Kings County residents post flyers on community bulletin boards.

“We try everything,” he said.

Meanwhile, Young Invincibles — a national organization with a regional office in New York — uses events at local colleges and universities to spread the word to a younger generation.

Marissa Martin, the group’s Northeast regional director, said that as more young people obtain health coverage, the work of enrolling the remaining uninsured people becomes more difficult.

“As you enroll folks into the exchange, what you’re facing is you’re getting to the harder-to-reach population,” Martin said.

The goal, Martin said, is to make sure all young people are insured, no matter what the political climate may be.

“All of the politics around health insurance is definitely very frustrating, and it’s even worse because this health insurance … it’s connected to everything in your life,” Martin said.

“(When) people are unhealthy, it impacts their jobs, it impacts how they interact with their kids, it impacts their ability to take care of their families. So it’s connected to everything.”