Obamacare enrollment delayed in Alaska

WASILLA — Open enrollment for Obamacare’s second year began Saturday for most states, and will continue until February 2015.

However, Alaskans were unable to enroll Saturday, after Enroll Alaska discovered an erroneous subsidy calculation, based in part on calculations offered by the now-notorious Healthcare.gov federal facilitated health insurance marketplace.

“The subsidy calculation generated by the window shopping tool on the healthcare.gov website is not calculating the correct subsidy for Alaskans, which is likely indicative that the situation ‘inside’ is no better,” a statement by the state nonprofit Enroll Alaska reads in part.

As a result, Enroll Alaska said it would suspend enrollment in the health insurance marketplace until further notice. A similar problem during 2014 open enrollment was resolved within a few days of its discovery.

At a press conference Friday, officials with the Alaska Primary Care Association, Enroll Alaska and the US Department of Health and Human Services said that despite improvements to the notoriously flawed-then-corrected Healthcare.gov website, the second open enrollment period for the federal health care reform act was bound to pose some challenges.

For example, this year’s enrollment period is much shorter than an enrollment period extended repeatedly last year to allow people to log on, and contains seven holidays, according to US Health and Human Services Regional Director Susan Johnson.

“This year is much more condensed,” she said.

Last year, 13,000 Alaskans enrolled in the federally managed exchange, reached by an enrollment time which was effectively doubled, Johnson said. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates approximately 100,000 Alaskans remain uninsured.

Another factor in the low enrollment was political opposition to the law, which hasn’t diminished in intervening months, though health officials pointed out their work isn’t meant as a political statement one way or the other, said Cherise Fowler, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Primary Care Association.

“The challenges faced by Alaska navigators and assisters are real,” she said.

Sign up this year may be crucial. The law contains provisions penalizing people for failing to sign up for insurance. In the inaugural sign year, consumers paid a penalty equal to 1 percent of income or $95 per person (or $47.50 for each child), whichever was greater. However, the 2015 percentage penalty doubles to two percent, while the flat fee penalty more than triples to $325 per person (or $162.50 for each child), or $975 for a family, meaning consumers who might have simply paid the penalty last year may find themselves hurting come tax time.

While a lot — technical glitches during open enrollment, for example — may seem to be the same, some things have changed (or maybe not), like the state government’s attitude toward accepting money provided to expand Medicaid income requirements in the state. Incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell turned down Medicaid money. Bill Walker, the governor-elect after Sean Parnell conceded the November election Friday, has pledged to accept it. Officials pledged Friday, prior to Parnell's concession, that the money would be available should a Walker-Mallot administration choose to accept it.

In addition, some states are transitioning from federally managed health insurance exchanges to state-run exchanges and vice versa. Idaho will make the move to a state-run site this year, while Oregon will transition to the federally managed exchanges.

Locally, Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is offering to help Valley residents navigate healthcare.gov when enrollment resumes.

“As a primary health provider in the Mat-Su Valley, we want to help educate residents in an easy-to-understand way, as well as assist those who haven’t yet signed up for health insurance or Medicaid, if qualified,” said the hospital’s chief executive John Lee in a statement. “During the next few months we’ll be going into the community to educate consumers, hosting in-hospital events, and meeting one-on-one to help people find affordable coverage for themselves and their family.”

Local consumers can make an appointment with a Mat-Su Regional Medical Center application counselor by calling 907-861-6939.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.