Maintain New York’s Commitment to Uninsured Families
Protect Our Success: Community-based Facilitated Enrollment
New York’s public health insurance programs keep families working and healthy, while contributing federal health care dollars to local economies. Through recent program simplifications and expansions and the creation of facilitated enrollment, New York has created a more rational and effective health insurance safety net for working families. As a result, the number of uninsured children in New York has dropped from 729,000 to 508,000 in just three years. Governor Pataki’s veto 119 will result in a 15 percent cut to the community-based Facilitated Enrollment Program and threatens the success we have achieved.
New York State’s $20 million Facilitated Enrollment Program, funds more than 40 community-based organizations, social service agencies and others to assist New Yorkers with Child Health Plus, Family Health Plus, and Medicaid enrollment and renewal. Through this program, community enrollment counselors are available to determine program eligibility, help fill out the application, gather the required documents, and ensure that applicants become enrolled. The enrollment counselor can also help applicants understand how managed care works, help them choose a health plan, and even select a doctor. Facilitated enrollers offer culturally and linguistically appropriate enrollment in community settings (like schools, day care centers and social service agencies) during weekdays, evenings and on the weekends – making it easier for working New Yorkers to apply.
Facilitated enrollment has been enormously successful in ensuring that New York’s public health insurance programs reach the families and individuals for whom they were created. Community-based facilitated enrollers have submitted over 300,000 health insurance applications for more than 546,000 adults, teens and children since the program was launched. In the first six months of this year alone, community-based facilitated enrollment programs have helped nearly 85,000 children and adults across New York apply for health insurance. Tens of thousands more have received help with the often difficult renewal process, helping these eligible families keep their health insurance. More than 95 percent of families surveyed about this program found the enroller that they worked with to be knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly.
Because approximately three out of four uninsured New Yorkers work, facilitated enrollment has been particularly important in ensuring that hard working families, who often cannot take time during the workday to travel to a Medicaid office or local department of social services, have the opportunity to apply for health insurance during evening and weekend hours. Facilitated enrollers’ individualized assistance helps eligible self employed applicants such as family day care providers, food vendors, truckers, and family farmers, comply with the complex eligibility rules that previously prevented them from getting coverage.
Community-based facilitated enrollment agencies reach deep into underserved communities that have historically been left out of public health insurance programs. They play a vital role in addressing the health disparities that exist in our communities by connecting hard-to-reach populations with preventive health care thereby discouraging reliance on emergency room and other costly forms of acute care. By providing enrollment services in over 40 languages, community-based facilitated enrollers help New York to fulfill federal and state language access mandates. They also have made health insurance more accessible in remote rural regions of our state, where the lack of public transportation leaves local Medicaid offices out of reach to many families.
Governor Pataki’s veto 119 of $1 million will result in a loss of $2 million in additional matching federal funds. When fully implemented, this loss of $3 million to the program means a 15 percent cut in funding to the community-based facilitated enrollment program. As a result of this cut, community-based facilitated enrollers will not be able to help over 20,000 children, teens and adults enroll in and keep the health insurance they need and are eligible for. We call on the state legislature to over ride this veto and restore funding to this vital program.
Children's Defense Fund-New York
420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 655, New York, NY 10170
Phone: (212) 697-2323 Fax: (212) 657-0566 Website: www.cdfny. o rg