Cardio on the Harbor: Baltimore Fitness Session Kickstarted Health Insurance Enrollment Across the State – Maryland Matters

Wednesday marked the start of open enrollment for Marylanders looking for different health insurance coverage options. To help publicize the 74-day enrollment period, the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange hosted a free fitness bootcamp class, Pilates classes and yoga stretching session Wednesday evening overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

This kicks off a six-week period during which Marylanders can receive health insurance for 2024, said Michele Eberle, executive director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. And we wanted to highlight how important it is to be healthy and tie that into how getting a health insurance plan can really help you.

The exchange manages the national private insurance market, so Maryland residents who do not have insurance through an employer or use federal health insurance, such as Medicaid or Medicare, can more easily explore their health care options.

Open enrollment for individual private plans began on the morning of November 1 and will continue until 11:59 p.m. on January 15, 2024. Those enrolled before the end of December will receive coverage beginning January 1, 2024. Those enrolled before the end of December will receive coverage beginning January 1, 2024. which registrations in January will benefit from coverage from February 1, 2024.

The open enrollment period also features a new health insurance provider, Aetna, which will join CareFirst, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare.

We can now offer four insurance companies, Eberle said. They are all a little different, but they must all cover the required services we ask of them. But what’s really nice about Aetna coming into the market is that we now have three insurance companies spread across the state. It’s just more choice.

The registration event comes at a time when thousands of Marylanders are being removed from Medicaid, which serves low-income households, each month after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends .

Those who have been disenrolled from Medicaid because they now make too much money to qualify are encouraged to find a health plan in the state’s insurance marketplace to avoid a lapse in their coverage.

During Wednesday’s event, HealthCare Access Maryland insurance navigators were available to help schedule enrollment appointments and provide information on how to use the state’s marketplace to find a affordable healthcare coverage.

Joe Poindexter, senior director of health insurance programs at HealthCare Access Maryland, said navigators work with people to sort through available health care options so they don’t have to navigate the system alone, a Poindexter said.

He said they often use community events to attract potential customers.

This year we have a lot of community resources. We have about 25 suppliers, Poindexter said. We offer free haircuts. We offer nail techniques. We provide free services. We try to bring things to attract people. It gives people a reason to come.

We found that in the past, when we focused only on registrations, we did not have a high participation rate, he added. So we want to do things to get people to come, so we thought we could create some community resources that attract people and then they can sign up as well.

According to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, based on 2021 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, some areas of Maryland have a higher percentage of uninsured residents, including Baltimore, where the fitness event took place.

Caroline County had the highest rate of uninsured residents at 9.1%. Other places with high proportions of uninsured residents were Wicomico (8.7%), Dorchester (8.6%), Kent (8.5%), Worcester (7.6%), Talbot (7.6%), 6%) and Garrett (7.4%), as well as Baltimore (6.9%).

The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange noted that younger Marylanders are more willing to go without health insurance than older populations, according to their market research, with one in five young Marylanders willing to go without health insurance for more than six months.

This is the most difficult population to obtain. Because when you are young: your finances are limited. Second: You feel healthy, Eberle said Wednesday. So when choosing where to put your money, health insurance may not be at the top of the list.

There are a wide range of reasons why some Maryland youth find themselves without coverage, according to the exchange, including thinking they can’t afford coverage or thinking they won’t qualify for it, finding too much difficult or confusing to apply for coverage, or just not knowing what options. are at their disposal.

During the 2023 legislative session, the Maryland Legislature expanded a pilot program to provide a youth-focused subsidy to help more young people afford health insurance.

Eberle urges young Marylanders to review their health coverage options to ensure they will have coverage in an emergency.

You don’t know when you’re going to have a bike accident, when you’re going to have an unwanted pregnancy, all those things where you think, well, that’s not going to happen to me. But if that’s the case, you want to be covered, she said.

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