Michael Neary / The Meridian StarAshley Rue, community outreach worker for Greater Meridian Health Clinic, Inc., helps people to fill out applications for insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. 

Now that the open enrollment period has begun, people seeking health insurance can find in-person, local help exploring plans through the Affordable Care Act. 

“A lot of people that we see work part-time so they can’t get it through their jobs,” said Ashley Rue, community outreach worker for Greater Meridian Health Clinic, Inc., at 2701 Davis St. “Without the marketplace, a lot of people wouldn’t even have the option to get insurance.”

The open enrollment period runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15 — a shorter time span than in previous years — and the federal government has curtailed funding to educate people about enrollment.

Rue noted, too, that Mississippi did not accept Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Using 2015 Current Population Survey data, a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation said 28 percent of uninsured Mississippi residents fall into what’s often called a “coverage gap” — people who would have been covered by Medicaid expansion but who do not earn enough to qualify for “premium tax credits” under the Affordable Care Act. The report said about 348,000 people were uninsured.

When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, the plan was for expanded Medicaid to cover people on the lower income scales. But a number of states, including Mississippi, opted not to expand Medicaid after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that they were not obligated to do so.

But Rue said that despite these obstacles, she’s been able to help people who come to her find health insurance. Some, she said, are intimidated by the online registration process — and that’s where live, human help can be of service.

“For some people, I just have to sit down with them and go through the application with them,” Rue said. “We don’t mind doing that. And then when it comes to the actual enrollment, we (connect) them to an agent.”

Rue said she’s been helping people sign up since 2013, when enrollment for the ACA health exchanges began.

Rue said a health insurance agent is present at Greater Meridian Health Clinic from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays, and from 1 to 4 p.m. on Thursdays — and she said the clinic is working with insurance agents Tammie and Terry Dale, who can also be reached by phone. Rue said she, or other staff members at the Greater Meridian Health Clinic, are available to help from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Rue said one health insurance company, Ambetter, is currently on the ACA health exchange in Mississippi.

Fines continue to be in place for people who go without insurance.

According to www.healthcare.gov, the fee for not having health insurance in 2017 was $695 per adult and $347.50 per child — or 2.5 percent of the household income, if that percentage is greater. The penalty rises yearly with inflation, according to the site.

Beverly Clay, a licensed insurance agent in Meridian, said she, too, has helped people to sign up for insurance under the ACA since the process began. She said she does “intake” with people, on the phone or in person, to get a sense as to what plans might work for them.

“So far the biggest thing (I’ve noticed) is that people with long-term illnesses are reaching out more,” Clay said.

She noted that, over the years, she’s worked with many people who hadn’t had insurance at all before signing up.

“Most of them had never had insurance,” Clay said. “It was unaffordable for them.

For more information

Various kinds organizations and individuals in Meridian are helping people to sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act:

Greater Meridian Health Clinic, Inc.

601-693-0118

2701 Davis St.

Beverly Clay, agent

601-616-2704

P.O. Box 5853

Tammie Dale, agent

601-616-9013

2136 23rd Ave.

Terry Dale, agent

877-785-3488

2136 23rd Ave.

Mt. Olive Baptist Church

601-482-7415

Information from https://localhelp.healthcare.gov/#/

Applications and information available at https://www.healthcare.gov/