DoortoHealthCare.org launches to help Western MD navigate Obamacare

On Oct. 1, enrollment in a health plan for those without insurance begins, a provision of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed into law in 2010.
In Maryland those without health insurance plans can search and sign up for a plan through the state’s health insurance marketplace, the Health Benefits Exchange of Maryland, otherwise known as the Maryland Health Connection.
To guide uninsured Western Maryland residents through the process of signing up for a health plan via the Maryland Health Connection, Columbia-based nonprofit Healthy Howard launched DoortoHealthCare.org on Aug. 30. Those living in Howard County and counties west of it will be able to use to the site to find information on health benefits available as of Oct. 1 when ACA enrollment begins.
Healthy Howard is one of six “connector entities” awarded contracts by the Maryland Health Exchange. The connector entities are “responsible for outreach and enrollment activities and enrolling people into both Medicaid and new plans marketed through the exchange,” said Kevin Lindamood, president of Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore city.
Recent polling shows that a majority of Americans disapprove of the Affordable Care Act. Roughly 36 percent of Americans aren’t quite sure of what changes happen as a result of the ACA. Health coverage for Marylanders who sign up for a health plan via the state’s health exchange begins Jan. 1, 2014.