(Thanh Tan/Texas Tribune)
A program created to help insurance-seekers in Texas cut through the complexities of federal health care reforms is shutting down in April, just 15 months after it opened its call center and years before the law goes into full effect.
Officials with the Texas Department of Insurance say they plan to help fill the gap, but it is unclear whether they can handle what some health experts call a beast of a policy change: millions of new patients will be required to acquire health insurance, and those first-time policy holders will need assistance understanding their rights and benefits.
When President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, a consumer education program was also created. That September, the federal government awarded TDI a $2.8 million grant to start the Consumer Health Assistance Program.
As of January, the department reported, Texas CHAP had answered 8,900 calls and resolved nearly 5,600 cases statewide. A staff of nine employees had dispersed multilingual public service announcements, given field presentations, begun a website and staffed a hot line.
State officials say they were allowed to use unspent money to keep those employees on through April 14. But federal financing was not renewed, and unlike some other states, Texas is not seeking alternative means to maintain its program.
(Read the full story at Texas Tribune)
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OPINION:
- Bob Reiss: How Health-Care Costs are Taxing the Middle Class (Washington Post)
- Kilday Hart: Modern Arizona Could Take Lesson from Texas History (Houston Chronicle)