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After ACA Deadline, Still No Break For Kansas City Health Navigators

The deadline for open enrollment in Affordable Care Act insurance has passed, but enrollment helpers in the Kansas City area won’t get a vacation just yet.

During Monday’s website problems, insurance navigators and counselors were asking enrollees to come back – either later in the week or next week – after the enrollment deadline.

“If they’ve started their application, and if they’ve experienced some sort of technical difficulty either with the website or with the call center, then as long as they’ve started it prior to or on March 31, they’ll have an opportunity to complete that application,” explains Jerry Jones of Community Health Council of Wyandotte County. 

The Department of Health and Human Services hasn’t set a formal deadline for completing after-March applications. Enroll Wyandotte will continue to help enrollees through April 15.

 Jones says his group is also dealing with a rush of newly-insured people seeking help finding doctors.

As a health care reporter, I aim to empower my audience to take steps to improve health care and make informed decisions as consumers and voters. I tell human stories augmented with research and data to explain how our health care system works and sometimes fails us. Email me at alexs@kcur.org.
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