A group of navigators held an enrollment fair at Tallahassee Community College Monday—the perfect place to pick up the one group that’s least likely to purchase health insurance.
Obamacare requires a healthy dose of young people in order to make its economics balance out. The idea is that younger people tend to be healthier and require less care, so their lack of spending offsets that of older, sicker enrollees. Jasmine Burney, a navigator with the healthcare advocacy group Florida Chain says 18-to-34 year olds are also the group least likely to know about the deadlines to sign up for insurance.
“Once we get their information, we can go into healthcare.gov website... Either they’re eligible for the marketplace, or they could be eligible for Medicaid or Medicare. If they have children, they could be eligible for the S-CHIP program as well. That’s pretty much what they’re options are.”
Burney admits Florida’s refusal to accept federal funding to extend Medicaid access to more low-income people has complicated the insurance picture. The deadline for uninsured Americans to sign up for health insurance is March 31st. Those who don’t are subject to a penalty.
