Administration kills ACA sign-up help in 18 cities

Activists say move will hurt enrollments

CHICAGO — President Donald Trump’s administration has ended Affordable Care Act contracts that brought assistance into libraries, businesses and urban neighborhoods in 18 cities, meaning shoppers on the insurance exchanges will have fewer places to turn for help signing up for coverage.

Community groups say the move, announced to them by contractors last week, will make it even more difficult to enroll the uninsured and help people already covered re-enroll or shop for a new policy. That’s already a concern because of consumer confusion stemming from the political wrangling in Washington and a shorter enrollment period.

Consumers will have 45 days to shop for 2018 coverage, starting Nov. 1 and ending Dec. 15. In previous years, they had twice that much time.

Two companies — McLean, Va.-based Cognosante LLC and Falls Church, Va.-based CSRA Inc. — will no longer help with the sign-ups following a decision by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials not to renew a final option year of the vendors’ contracts.

“These contracts were intended to help CMS provide temporary, in-person enrollment support during the early years” of the exchanges, said CMS spokeswoman Jane Norris in an email. Other federally funded help with enrollment will continue, she said, including a year-round call center and grant-funded navigator programs. The existing program is “robust” and “we have the on-the-ground resources necessary” in key cities, Norris said.

But community advocates expected the vendors’ help for at least another year. “It has our heads spinning about how to meet the needs in communities,” said Inna Rubin of United Way of Metro Chicago, who helps run an Illinois health access coalition.

CSRA’s $12.8 million contract expires Aug. 29. Cognosante’s $9.6 million contract expires the same date. Together, they assisted 14,500 enrollments, far less than 1 percent of the 9.2 million people