Online-only: Insurance marketplaces open for enrollment, navigators ready to help
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* Kim Krisberg

Oct. 1 marks open enrollment in the state-based health insurance marketplaces, with coverage starting as soon as January. Understanding the new health care marketplace and choosing a suitable plan will likely be a daunting task for many of the millions of Americans expected to gain coverage via the new exchanges. Fortunately, trained navigators are on the ground and ready to help.

In August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $67 million in grants to 105 navigator applicants. Navigator grantees and their staff are trained to offer unbiased and culturally competent help to consumers about health insurance, the new marketplaces, qualified health plans, and public insurance programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But more than just informational resources, navigators will offer in-person assistance to people who want help in shopping for and enrolling in an insurance plan.

In addition to navigators, HHS also recognized in August more than 100 national organizations and businesses that have volunteered to help Americans find their way through the new insurance marketplace.

“Navigators will be among the many resources available to help consumers understand their coverage options in the marketplace,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in an agency news release. “A network of volunteers on the ground in every state — health care providers, business leaders, faith leaders, community groups, advocates and local elected officials — can help spread the word and encourage their neighbors to get enrolled.”

According to HHS, navigators must adhere to strict security and privacy standards, and must have completed 20-30 hours of training. Examples of official navigators include the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved, the Martin Luther King Health Center in Louisiana and the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers.

Navigators will also be a topic of discussion during session 4187.2, “ACA Navigators and Assistors: Opportunities for Public Health,” during APHA’s 141st Annual Meeting in Boston Nov. 2–6.

To learn more about open enrollment and navigators, visit [www.healthcare.gov](http://www.healthcare.gov).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association