Nev. spending millions on health reform law outreach
By Andrew Doughman
Nevada’s state government is preparing for a huge shopping spree this autumn.
All Nevadans must have health insurance in 2014 under President Obama’s health care law, and the state is contracting with companies to provide “navigators” who will educate people about the law’s requirements and enroll tens of thousands of uninsured Nevadans in insurance plans starting Oct. 1.
“It’ll be a matter of a family or individual sitting down in front of us with a laptop and we’ll go through the entire application process,” said Ted DeCorte, CEO at Consumer Assistance and Resource Enterprise, a nonprofit established specifically to implement the Affordable Care Act and enroll Nevadans in health insurance plans.
DeCorte’s group is one of seven organizations to receive $2,477,000 in grant money — funded by both the federal and state government — to do the outreach work. DeCorte’s organization was awarded $200,000.
The state awarded the largest grant to the Ramirez Group, a polling and policy research firm typically aligned with the Democratic Party.
Their client, Know Your Care, received about $1 million from the state this year to help enroll the estimated 600,000 uninsured Nevadans in qualified health insurance plans before the Jan. 1, 2014 deadline under which all Americans must have health insurance or face a tax penalty on their 2015 tax return.
