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October 16, 2012

Case attends ACA briefing

Rebeka Rutledge The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — Approximately 100 consumer health leaders from across the country gathered in Washington D.C. earlier this month for an invite-only briefing on the Affordable Care Act and how various states plan to deal with the future of health care.

One of these leaders was Duncan resident Tanya Case, executive director of Oklahoma’s Temporary High Risk Pool.

She was also the only person from Oklahoma to be invited.

“I thought it was a real honor to be invited,” Case said. “I was asked to come because of my efforts in getting enrollment in the Temporary High Risk Pool.”

Case helps people who haven’t been able to get health insurance because they have a pre-existing condition.

The briefing’s primary focus was on how to improve outreach and engagement with consumers in the U.S.

“As it is now, on Jan. 1, 2014, there will be a lot of individuals who are going to need help enrolling with health insurance,” said Case. “This meeting was discussing how to best reach them.”

More than 34 million people are estimated to need help enrolling who have never had health insurance before, mainly because they could not afford it.

Many of the White House officials were in attendance, including Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The future of this health care plan’s future rides much on the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.

Should President Obama be re-elected to a second term, it is planned for enrollment to begin October 2013.

Much of the discussion centered around what different states had planned for setting up the exchanges for these enrollments.

Case said that Oklahoma does not yet have an exchange set up but it appears that the Oklahoma exchange will be federally facilitated as opposed to state facilitated.

“It was interesting to hear different states ideas and what they’re planning to do, as well as what the federal government is planning to do,” said Case. “It was a really incredible experience to go into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.”

While Case said they didn’t enter the White House, where they met was what was formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building, which is to the west of the White House. This building is also where all the Secret Service offices are and was built in the late 1800s.

“There was a lot of security and we had to go through three security points,” she said. “It is a very old building and had a lot of exhibits like one with a mail pouch from back when they used the Pony Express.”

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