Open enrollment underway for insurance exchange
In addition, some residents are losing access to running water
Through May 15, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Exchange, beWellnm, is offering an open enrollment period for uninsured New Mexicans.
The three-month reopening of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, is also an opportunity for those who have lost job-based insurance during the pandemic to enroll in the marketplace and find affordable coverage.
“BeWellnm encourages all uninsured New Mexicans to begin the enrollment process as soon as possible because of the limited amount of time to find comprehensive, affordable health insurance options,” said Maureen Manring, spokeswoman for beWellnm.
More than 56,000 New Mexicans qualify for significant premium reductions, she said.
The plans being offered cover 10 essential services, such as doctor visits, hospital stays, maternity care, emergency room care, prescriptions and more, Manring said.
Federal law protects people from being excluded on the basis of preexisting conditions.
The New Mexico health insurance companies participating in the beWellnm marketplace include: Ambetter from Western Sky Community, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico, Friday Health Plans, Molina Health Care of New Mexico and True Health New Mexico.
For further information about the plans, a person’s health insurance needs or the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange, visit www. beWellnm.com, or call 1-833-862-3935.
AUSTIN, Texas — Millions of Americans endured another frigid day without electricity or heat in the aftermath of a deadly winter storm as utility crews raced to restore power before another blast of snow and ice sowed more chaos in places least equipped to deal with it.
Nearly 3.4 million customers around the U.S. were still without electricity, and some also lost water service. Texas officials ordered 7 million people — a quarter of the population of the nation’s second-largest state — to boil tap water before drinking it following days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes.
The latest storm front was certain to complicate recovery efforts, especially in states that are unaccustomed to such weather — parts of Texas, Arkansas and the Lower Mississippi Valley.
“There’s really no letup to some of the misery people are feeling across that area,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, referring to Texas.
The system was forecast to move into the Northeast on Thursday. More than 100 million people live in areas covered by some type of winter weather warning, watch or advisory, the weather service said.
This week’s extreme weather has been blamed for the deaths of more than 30 people, some of whom perished while struggling to keep warm inside their homes. In the Houston area, one family succumbed to carbon monoxide from car exhaust in their garage. Another family died while using a fireplace to keep warm.
Residents of South Padre Island, Texas, some of whom lack heat or basic amenities in their own homes, have been rescuing cold-stunned sea turtles and taking them to a convention center in the South Texas resort town.
“Every 15 minutes or less there’s another truck or SUV that pulls up,” Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Weather-related outages have been particularly stubborn in Oregon, where some customers have been without power for almost a week.
The worst U.S. outages by far have been in Texas, where 3 million homes and businesses remained without power as of midday Wednesday. More than 200,000 additional customers were in the dark in four Appalachian states, and nearly that many in the Pacific Northwest, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outage reports.
The president of the Texas power grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said he hoped many customers would see at least partial service restored by later Wednesday or Thursday.
Dashawn Walker, 33, was thrilled to find the power back on in his Dallas apartment. He stayed at a suburban hotel Tuesday night after being without power since Sunday, but said he was charged $474 for one night.
“It’s crazy,” Walker said. “I mean why would y’all go up on the hotels in the middle of a crisis?”
Water pressure has fallen across the state because lines have frozen, and many residents are leaving faucets dripping in hopes of preventing pipes from freezing, said Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged residents to shut off water to their homes, if possible.