- Champaign County Health Care Consumers - https://www.healthcareconsumers.org -

ACA and Medicaid updates – CCHCC is doing what it takes to serve our community!

July 7, 2021

Dear friends,

Even though we have made great strides in reducing the number of COVID cases and getting community members vaccinated, we cannot pretend that the pandemic is over. Children under 12 are not yet able to get vaccinated and there are many adults who are not able to get vaccinated due to health conditions or obstacles. There are even more who are refusing to get vaccinated.

We must continue with caution, especially given the new and highly transmissible Delta variant. Please keep wearing your mask indoors at grocery stores and other such places, and talk to your friends and family about getting vaccinated—without judgement.

Pandemic challenges – we will continue to be cautious.
CCHCC’s work to provide free services to community members, including health insurance enrollment and prescription assistance, is much harder now that we have to work remotely and practice social-distancing. We are committed to keeping our staff and clients safe. Providing direct services to consumers is more complicated and time-consuming, and requires more back and forth – whether over the phone, email, text, zoom, or regular mail – to get everything done. In addition, there is more to do beyond our regular scope of work! For example, more medically-fragile homeless individuals with complex health care situations need help with shelter and housing as they fall through the cracks of our current community resources. Also, community members need more information about, and help accessing the COVID-19 vaccines. We are sharing information about vaccine clinics and answering questions that folks have about getting vaccinated. All while helping our clients find affordable healthcare!

Thankfully, health insurance is more accessible and affordable than ever before! Not only has the ACA survived another Supreme Court challenge, but the Open Enrollment period has been extended. And, in the state of Illinois, Governor Priztker has just signed a law extending Medicaid benefits for pandemic enrollees until 12 months after the pandemic emergency expires. This means that we have even more opportunities to get our community members covered!

SCOTUS declares the Affordable Care Act to be valid and to remain intact!
As you may know already, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) survived its third (third!) Supreme Court challenge when, last month – on June 17 – the Supreme Court rejected a claim by a group of conservative states that a recent change in the law made it unconstitutional. The law’s challengers, Texas and 17 other Republican-led states, urged the court to rule that the ACA’s requirement for nearly all Americans to obtain health insurance or pay an income tax penalty — known as the individual mandate — is unconstitutional. For that reason, they said, the entire law must be scrapped.

By a 7-2 vote, the court said the challengers did not have legal standing to sue because they did not make a strong enough showing that the law harmed them. The decision also suggested that it would be difficult for any challengers to try again using the same legal theory.

This is great news, especially since President Joe Biden has created a Special Enrollment Period – going on right now! – that allows us to get even more folks covered with affordable health insurance!

Learn more about expanded health insurance options, and CCHCC’s work here. [1]

CCHCC’s experienced staff with highly-specialized skills are here to help year-round!
CCHCC’s staff are the most experienced enrollment workers in our community! Thanks to community support from people like you, CCHCC has been able to retain staff and build our expertise in health insurance enrollment.

Thank you for your support!
We appreciate your financial support for our services, and your help getting the word out to others about CCHCC. Together, we are working to help our community survive the pandemic, and building a stronger, healthier community – together, we are giving the gift of health!

SUPPORT CCHCC! [2]

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,
Claudia Lennhoff
Executive Director
Champaign County Health Care Consumers