The federally funded navigators that help people understand health care reform will not be available in all parts of Wisconsin.
As part of the Affordable Care Act, six organizations received a combined $1 million last month to help Wisconsin residents understand the new federal marketplace. The reach of these so-called navigators, however, is limited. Some groups are focused on the elderly and minorities. Other organizations are stretched thin and will mostly be providing education – not actually signing people up.
Greg Skemp, the director of sales and marketing for Gundersen Health Plan in La Crosse, says southwest Wisconsin doesn’t have a navigator.
“Those navigators, because the program and the grants were given so late in the game, they’re going to go where the population is,” says Skemp. “In our state, the population is not in the southwest greater-La Crosse area – it’s in the southeast.”
That’s why hospitals like Gundersen and other organizations are using their own money to train people to become certified counselors to help people through the process.
The state of Wisconsin and private insurance brokers are doing the same. J.P. Weiske, the spokesman for the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, says people living in regions without navigators can still get help when the marketplace opens on October 1. “We’re hopeful that there will be enough boots on the ground for people to get help.”
Weiske says if the state only relied on federally trained navigators, there would not be enough resources to help everyone who needs it.
