Affordable Care Act & Medicaid Outreach
The Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Outreach Project aimed to educate and conduct outreach on enrolling in health insurance. AAHD created plain-language, consumer-facing materials that advertised open and special enrollment periods. Materials emphasized key messages around financial assistance, in-person help, and the importance of the disability community having access to accessible and affordable health insurance. AAHD partnered with national organizations to disseminate materials, specifically those who worked with people with disabilities, young adults, immigrant communities, persons of color and persons who identify as LGBTQ+. This project was funded by Community Catalyst with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation from 2017-2023.
The scope of work for this project was to highlight enrollment in Medicaid and the ACA Marketplace and health insurance literacy messaging through posts on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) with AAHD creating content, such as social media calendars and Twitter chats, that were to be disseminated by subawardees. Other content was to be shared through AAHD and partner listserv and community newsletters. Major virtual events occurred during the Open Enrollment Period, typically falling from early November to mid-January. Nearing the end of the project, AAHD made a special focus on the Public Health Emergency and the start of unwinding the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement, which unenrolled millions of Medicaid users in 2022 and created record open enrollment numbers in the ACA Marketplace in 2023. AAHD and partners provided expertise on Medicaid enrollment and available Medicaid benefits and required subawardees on this project to attend project planning meetings, webinars, regular check-in calls with AAHD, and monthly/annual metric reporting.
Open Enrollment and Special Enrollment Periods
An open enrollment (OE) period is when individuals can enroll in or change ACA Marketplace plans via HealthCare.Gov and often occurs in the beginning of November and ends in the middle of January. OE allows individuals to review healthcare coverage plans and update based on annual income, household number, and more to adjust as needed. If an individual misses enrollment during this period, they will have to wait for the following year to make changes to their ACA Marketplace healthcare coverage, unless they quality for a special enrollment period. If individuals are already enrolled in an ACA Marketplace plan, OE is the time when they can make changes; for more information, see our renewals and redeterminations factsheet.
A special enrollment period (SEP) is when individuals can qualify for an event that would allow them to enroll in the ACA Marketplace even though open enrollment is not occurring. As it relates to people with disabilities, SEPs can be complex but usually occur with a loss of health insurance, changes in employment, changes in household numbers, changes in income, and more, all of which are discussed more in the NDNRC factsheet on SEPs. It should be noted that enrollment in the Medicaid program is available at any time of the year.
Partners on this project were:
Ability 360, Phoenix, AZ
Able South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Alaska Primary Care Association, Anchorage , AK
Alliance Center for Independence, Edison, NJ
Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York, NY
CIL of South Florida, Miami, FL
Developmental Disabilities Institute at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
disABILITY LINK Tucker, GA
Family Voices Indiana, Fishers, IN
Family Voices of Mississippi, Jackson, MS
Keogh Health Connection, Phoenix, AZ
NAMI Kansas, Topeka, KS
NAMI Texas, Austin, TX
PAVE Family to Family Health Information Center, Tacoma, WA
Rhode Island Parent Information Network, Warwick, RI
University of New Mexico Center for Development and Disability, Albuquerque, NM
University of Montana Rural Institute, Missoula, MT