CAMERON, Mo. — The federal government has shut down in a battle over Obamacare but the health insurance exchange is still launching Tuesday as planned. However, some worry that people in rural areas will be left behind.
The Center for Rural Affairs says there are 8 million uninsured people in rural areas and that a large percentage of them will qualify for the tax subsidies, making health insurance affordable. Some people in Cameron, Mo. today learned for the first time just how affordable.
Amanda Gee hasn’t had insurance for two years, since her employer doesn’t provide it. Now she’s meeting with an insurance broker to find out what options are available to her. She said she’s pleasantly surprised how affordable it is once you factor in the government tax credit.
“Really worried I wouldn’t understand any of it but it’s really easy,” she said, “I feel a lot better about it and it’s not some big dreadful monster i was thinking it was going to be.”
Scott Eckley with Apollo Group Insurance said his brokers are setting up various events like this in small towns. They’re spreading the word through town via fliers and especially talking to small businesses that can’t pay employees health insurance.
“Initially there was a little bit of push back and resistance,” he said. “Once they understood it would be good for their employees if their employees had insurance and it was affordable, I mean the one we just had was $23 a month and for them it was really affordable.”
While trying to help people sign up in Cameron on Tuesday, they ran into some of the same problems seen around the country: websites crashing, glitches, bugs. But they came prepared with paper copies to sign people up the old-fashioned way.
Congress will continue bickering over funding Obamacare, but Eckley said that right now the Affordable Care Act is the law and they’ll keep moving forward helping people enroll.
“Although the government did shut down last evening that does not impact enrollment in Obamacare, it’s part of the government that is fully functional,” Eckley said.
click hereFor a list of towns where these brokers have set up open enrollment meetings, :