This week Sara LeMaster, Manager, Government Relations and Public Policy at CHCACT, shares some important news on open enrollment, federal funding, and advocacy activities.

Open Enrollment:

From November 1, 2019 to December 15, 2019, anyone looking for coverage or to change health insurance plans can find affordable plans at www.accesshealthct.com.

Through www.accesshealthct.com, Connecticut residents can complete applications for health insurance, including insurance through commercial carriers and Husky A, B, C, and D options.

For help applying for these plans, all Community Health Centers have Certified Application Counselors (CAC’s), who work with non-covered patients to find a plan that fits them. These counselors are great at their job, and truly care about getting people covered. Many of our CAC’s are bilingual in Spanish, and some speak as many as three languages.

If Certified Application Counselors or Health Centers are having trouble/ technical issues, they can reach out to me at slemaster@chcact.org.

Federal funding:

The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) anticipates that funding for Community Health Centers will be extended via Continuing Resolution through December 20th, 2019. Currently, CHC’s are funded through November 21st via a Continuing Resolution passed prior to the September 30th funding deadline.

Advocacy:

• This week, DataHaven released Community Well-being indexes for all communities in Connecticut. You can access the reports here.
• NACHC sponsored the first-ever Unity for Community Health Day this Tuesday, November 12th. You can read more about this here. CHCACT contacted our Congressional delegation to ask them to support Health Center funding in the Congressional budget negotiations.
• Many of the healthcare advocacy organizations and working groups are finalizing their 2020 legislative agendas and policy goals. CHCACT is working with these groups to ensure that the policy needs of our health centers and patients are priorities for healthcare advocates across the state.
• Please hold the date for the next Federally Qualified Health Center Caucus meeting, which will be held on Tuesday, December 10th at 1:00 PM in the Legislative Office Building (LOB) in Hartford. This is a group of legislators that have been helping us champion issues pertaining to Community Health Centers in the legislature.