Effectiveness of Marketplace Guides to facilitate access to health insurance in the community

Background:
The Affordable Care Act is one of the most major advancements in health access in this country’s history, by providing increased access to Medicaid, as well as new state-specific Qualified Health Plans (QHPs).  To implement the ACA’s insurance access, each state receiving federal funds is utilizing Marketplace Guides (MPGs) as a core component of this strategy.

Our group is contracted by the State of Delaware to recruit, certify, train and deploy Marketplace Guides (MPGs), to work within the community and educate/assist with enrollment into the above insurance options.

Methods:
Through a State grant to our Department, we expanded our existing Health Coach program from 2 coaches to 12 Marketplace Guides.  As a community-focused department, we sought to deploy our MPGs to more than 20 different sites in the community.

Results:
We began educating consumers in September 2013 at community events, and launched the MPG program in October 2013.  We will present up to date impact data regarding client enrollments in QHPs.  Preliminary data suggest we have reached in excess of 3000 clients already in our catchment area of Delaware.

Conclusion:
As an academic department, our expertise in community health and evaluation played a major role in the administration of the program.  We successfully partnered with the State of Delaware Dept. of Health & Social Services and the Dept. of Insurance to deploy our MPGs into the community. Preliminary data strongly support the use of MPGs to increase access to health care through expanded insurance options.