Navigators offer help in ACA sign-up season

Spanish-speaking population in Georgia targeted over weekend.

Enrollment for 2019 health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is underway in Georgia.

On Saturday, federally funded navigators walked door to door through the immigrant communities in Clarkston, manned a fair information table at M. Agnes Jones Elementary School in Atlanta and talked to shoppers at a Duluth mall that caters to Spanish speakers.

“We want them to understand why it’s important for them to get coverage,” said Viviana Cossio, one of the navigators at Santa Fe Mall on Saturday to discuss enrollment under the ACA, also known as Obamacare. “They are happy to know they will have navigators in Spanish available to assist them.”

Cossio said navigators talked to several dozen people to get them to make appointments later to do actual sign-ups before the enrollment period is scheduled to end Dec. 15.

The Trump administration chose her organization as the 2018 navigator group to guide Georgians through the sign-up process for 2019 ACA plans. The group, Georgia Refugee Health and Mental Health, created a Spanish-language arm, Obamacare Para Latinos, and an English-speaking arm, HealthcareGA. Their phone number for all languages is 1-888230-7772.

The administration chose Georgia Refugee Health and Mental Health with the goal of seeking out customers for Obamacare from what it called populations “left behind” in previous years’ sign-ups.

STEVE SCHAEFER / SPECIAL TO THE AJC Carolina Montilla (right) and Viviana Cossio talk to a shopper about enrolling in health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the Santa Fe Mall in Duluth on Saturday.