Illinois Officials Tell Thousands to Start Over on Health Insurance

Illinois officials said anyone who believes they were referred to Medicaid by mistake when enrolling in the nation's new health insurance system should start again at the Get Covered Illinois website online screening tool. That's a state-run website that asks simple questions and sends users either to Medicaid or the health insurance marketplace.
Illinois officials said anyone who believes they were referred to Medicaid by mistake when enrolling in the nation's new health insurance system should start again at the Get Covered Illinois website online screening tool. That's a state-run website that asks simple questions and sends users either to Medicaid or the health insurance marketplace.

Get Covered Illinois (GCI) is advising people who have applied for coverage on the federal web site, healthcare.gov, and who believe they may have been incorrectly referred to the state for Medicaid coverage, to restart the process by using the screening tool at Getcoveredillinois.gov.

State officials are offering this guidance

because some of the people who have been flagged by the federal website as not eligible for private health plans through the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace believe they have been incorrectly referred to the Medicaid program. Federal officials have said they expect to transfer applications from more than 30,000 people to the state who are potentially eligible for Medicaid, although the final Medicaid determination rests with the state.

The GCI screening tool asks users several simple questions about their income, household size and if anyone in the family is currently on Medicaid. It uses this information to determine whether the applicant likely meets the income levels for Medicaid, or is eligible to purchase coverage through the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace.

· If the screening tool refers them back to the federal website, and they are unable to remove the application within their existing account, GCI recommends they create a new Marketplace account with a different email address and submit a new application to healthcare.gov.

· If the screening tool refers them to the state’s Medicaid application site, ABE.illinois.gov, they can choose to submit an application there.

· Applicants are also encouraged to call the GCI Help Desk at 866-311-1119 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day to obtain additional assistance.

Under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), individuals and families with income from 138 percent up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($15,860 to $45,960 for individuals and from $32,500 up to $94,200 for a family of four) are eligible for subsidies on a sliding scale if they obtain coverage through the Marketplace and don’t have an alternative source of affordable, quality coverage. GCI is delivering this guidance through its statewide system of more than 1,500 Navigators and in-person counselors and is also contacting applicants directly via email and phone.

The state is offering the advice to applicants ahead of Dec. 23, the first of a series of key enrollment dates under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). Consumers must enroll in a health plan by Dec. 23, and have paid a premium by Dec. 31, in order to have coverage on Jan. 1 through the plans offered on the Marketplace, which is accessed through healthcare.gov. The full open enrollment period for the Marketplace runs through March 31, 2014.

There is no final date to apply for Medicaid eligibility for which applications are accepted throughout the year.

Illinois officials said traffic on the Getcoveredillinois.gov website has remained steady, with more than 595,000 website visits since Oct. 1 and more than 270,000 users of the screening tool.

The ABE site has received more than 99,000 applications.

Anyone seeking assistance in applying for health coverage in Illinois is encouraged to do so through any of the following methods:

§ Visit the website at www.Getcoveredillinois.gov (there is also a Spanish-language version of the website).

§ Sit with a specially trained Navigator at one of the hundreds of partner sites across the state; find a Navigator nearby through the website by entering a zip code. Bi-lingual Navigators are available.

§ Call the help desk at 866-311-1119. Operators are available to help you each day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Spanish-language assistance is available on the phone.

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