Enroll Virginia – Affordable Care Act Update The open enrollment period for the Health Insurance Marketplace ended on January 31st, and millions of Americans were able to renew or gain health insurance coverage before this deadline. In Virginia, demand remained strong throughout Open Enrollment and 410,726 Virginians were enrolled in health coverage through the Marketplace. Navigators with Enroll Virginia […]

 “This is a fight we must win” said VPLC Health Law Attorney Jill Hanken at a rally on Sunday, January 15th at the state Capitol grounds bell tower. Senator Tim Kaine organized the event where Jill was one of more than 700 people rallying for the Affordable Care Act (ACA a.k.a. Obamacare)) and the rights of all Americans to have access to quality and […]

Why does VPLC work so hard on health insurance issues?   For the third year in a row, VPLC and our many allies tried but failed to get Virginia to close the health insurance coverage gap .  Why do we keep working so hard on this?  Take a look at this video and then try […]

By Prue Salasky, Daily Press The drive to enroll the uninsured in Virginia in health coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, healthcare.gov, has hit high gear in the days before the Feb. 15 deadline for 2015 coverage. In addition to the in-person help offered by navigators and application counselors at community health centers and […]

By Prue Salasky, Daily Press The government released the first state-by-state numbers for health-insurance enrollment through the federally run state marketplace Tuesday. In the first month, by Dec. 15, the deadline for Jan. 1 coverage through Affordable Care Act plans, Virginia had 164,884 enrollees, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, CMS. Of those, […]

By Prue Salasky, Daily Press Enrollment in health insurance through Virginia’s federally facilitated state marketplace, established by the Affordable Care Act, is continuing. While open enrollment for 2014 ended on March 31, there are changes in status and other situations that allow people to enroll, according to Jill Hanken, director of Enroll Virginia!, an arm […]

By Laurence Hammack, The Roanoke Times A final, six-week surge in enrollment has more than doubled the number of Virginians who obtained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. A total of 216,356 people in the state purchased coverage through Healthcare.gov, an online marketplace that is a key part of the new federal health care law. […]

By Prue Salasky, Daily Press At midnight Tuesday, the clock officially ran out on 2014 enrollment in the state health insurance marketplaces established by theAffordable Care Act, but that doesn’t mean the work of the navigators and certified application counselors, funded by the government to promote enrollment, will come to an end. “There continues to […]

By Michael Martz, Richmond Times-Dispatch With one month to go, Virginia already has passed the federal target for enrollment in health plans in the new insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act. Almost 103,000 Virginians have enrolled in health plans through the marketplace operated by the federal government, or 101.2 percent of the target […]

By Michael Martz, Richmond Times-Dispatch Virginians account for slightly less than 1 percent of the 106,185 Americans who enrolled in health plans through the federal and state insurance marketplace in the first, rocky month of operation. Just more than 1,000 Virginians had enrolled in health plans in the marketplace from Oct. 1 through Nov. 2, […]

By Tammie Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch Virginians who want help signing up for health insurance in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will be able to get in-person and telephone assistance from a statewide network of navigators working for a newly developed program called Enroll Virginia! The Enroll Virginia! website, www.enroll-virginia.com, and telephone help line are scheduled to […]

McClatchy Newspapers After several months of delays, the Obama administration awarded $67 million on Thursday to fund an army of outreach and enrollment workers known as “navigators,” who will help people sign up for coverage on the new state health insurance marketplaces beginning Oct. 1. With less than seven weeks to go before the marketplaces […]

Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) held a town hall information session with constituents on the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. He was joined in the Imani Center in Richmond by state and federal officials, some of whom used slides in their presentations. Topics included how people would be able to get insurance through the new […]

By The Associated Press Only one state will spend less per capita than Virginia to promote public awareness of the new health care reform law. According to data compiled by The Associated Press from federal and state sources, the $3.9 million in outreach spending in Virginia amounts to 49 cents per resident. Only Wisconsin, at […]

The State Corporation Commission will assume a new role on July 1 to manage insurance plans that will be sold on a health benefits exchange the federal government will begin operating in Virginia in 2014. But the commission and its Bureau of Insurance already have taken big steps to get ready for a major shift […]

Martha Harding cares for four grandchildren, who are on Medicaid. She works in a minimum-wage administrative job. “I don’t have insurance, and I worry about what would happen to my grandchildren if I get sick or hurt and can’t work,” she says. “Hard-working people like me, age 55 to 64, have a difficult time because […]

By Amy Jeter, The Virginian-Pilot Imagine if buying health insurance was kind of like reserving a hotel room. You log on to a website and answer questions about your age, the number of people in your family, your address. You answer more questions about your income, whether you want to keep your doctor, your preferred […]

Confused by all the talk of health care reform? Heard of the Affordable Care Act, but wondering what it will really mean for your community and the Commonwealth? Join the Richmond chapter of the Virginia Interfaith Center for an community conversation about these very issues! Community Conversation on Health Care Implementation in Virginia  Tuesday, November […]

The Virginia Poverty Law Center has joined with other advocacy groups to support the Medicaid expansion that is part of the Affordable Care Act. “The Medicaid expansion could provide coverage to about 425,000 very low-income Virginians — nearly half of the one million uninsured in this state,” said VPLC health law attorney Jill Hanken.  “We […]

By Dan Heyman, Public News Service Advocates of the Affordable Care Act are hailing the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Obama’s healthcare reform law, especially what it means for the state’s uninsured. Jill Hanken, staff attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, notes there are more than a million Virginians without health insurance. The Supreme […]

By Monique Coppola, Public News Service-VA The check could be in the mail by August 1 for some individuals and businesses in Virginia. According to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 17 health-insurance plans collected about $40 million more than they should have, and will now have to pay it back to consumers under the […]