OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Pobe Hadinko is looking for help to get his wife enrolled in Medicaid. Pobe says he filled out his application online, but it took a lot of work.
“I did a little study on YouTube before I apply online,” said Hadinko. When asked how long it took, he said, “Ah couple of hours, couple of hours I don’t really know I don’t know how many hours it took me but a couple of hours.”
Pobe came to OneWorld Community Health Center to get help to enroll his wife. He didn’t want to go through that online process again.
“Naw, naw, not really,” he said, laughing.
The same story applies to people signing up for the Affordable Care Act. The application process is long and complicated.
“It’s complicated for families if you look on the internet and how many plans, I think I saw 81 plans to go through all that,” said Andrea Skolkin.
Skolkin is the CEO of OneWorld. Teresa Chavez is the enrollment and finance services supervisor. Teresa says OneWorld can help with applications for health insurance.
“We do the screening, make sure we have all the information that we need. Complete the application for them. Go into detail of the results and then review the plans that are being offered,” said Chavez.
“I have never seen a time like this in my lifetime where there are so many uncertainties for families and so much fear I would say,” Skolkin said.
OneWorld in Omaha helps around 600 people fill out health care applications each month, and with more families searching to at least keep their rates in the same price neighborhood, more people will come to the office.
Andrea admits it might be tough to handle the crowds.
“There isn’t just money flowing in,” Skolkin said. When asked if they lost any federal funding, she said, “We did lose federal funding we were not only certified application counselors but we were also navigators and that federal grant which we received through our association did go away.”
More than a dozen different languages are spoken by OneWorld applicants so it does take time to correctly fill out the applications.
“The ACA was meant to be user-friendly but, in some cases, it’s not depending on the literacy depending on the person,” Chavez said. “There’s some questions that determine eligibility and you need to answer them correctly. Sometimes we ask the patients those questions and they don’t even understand.”
But OneWorld will be here to help and they anticipate helping three to four thousand more people in a few months who will have to deal with new Medicaid re-enrollment issues.
“As the states do the eligibility determination for people who have as a result of expansion, will have to prove every six months that they’re eligible for Medicaid so we know that’s coming,” Chavez said.
If you need help filling out applications for health care through the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid, call OneWorld at 402-502-8888.
Nov. 1 is the first day you can enroll, renew or change health care plans in the marketplace for next year. Open enrollment runs through Dec. 15.
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