Health Policy Student Association leaders Olivia Alford, Katherine Autin, and Juliana Stebbins

"Through the Washtenaw Health Initiative Education and Outreach Program, we have touched the lives of nearly 400 low-income and minority individuals in Washtenaw and Livingston counties by informing them of their insurance options under the Affordable Care Act," says Olivia Alford, at graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (SPH) and co-chair of the Health Policy Student Association (HPSA) at the school.  Alford, along with her team members, fellow SPH students Julianna Stebbins and Katherine Autin, spearheaded this initiative to recruit and train 70 graduate students across the university to do the outreach. 

  

The outreach workers hail from the schools of public health, public policy, social work, medicine, law, pharmacy, business and literature, science and the arts. They are trained to give presentations and one-on-one counseling sessions to help low-income and minority populations gain access to affordable, quality health care coverage. Carrie Rheingans, WHI Project Manager, assisted by Leah Hatch-Vallier, Health Policy Analyst at the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, conducted the training sessions. 

 

The students they trained have worked with individuals and groups at the University of Michigan Medical School's student-run free clinic in Pinckney, Grace Fellowship Church in Ypsilanti, the Manchester Community Resource Center, the Ypsilanti Health Center and the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti District libraries among others. Ram Rao, a first-year medical student and one of the student directors of the Pinckney clinic, feels that "our patients are now given a resource to answer their questions about the ACA and healthcare reform; one that could not be provided without [this project]." 

 

"The work we do really empowers the individuals to take the next step and buy insurance on the exchange or enroll in the soon-to-be expanded Medicaid program," says Stebbins who is the Project Lead for the program. The project team envisions the program as an ongoing, sustainable initiative which HPSA will continue to operate.

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Other News

More than 112,013 people from Michigan have selected a health insurance plan on healthcare.gov, the health insurance marketplace for residents of Michigan. The Michigan Primary Care Association offers some analysis about Michigan's enrollment numbers to date, including comparisons of Michigan's enrollment numbers to other states using healthcare.gov. The marketplace open enrollment period ends on March 31, 2014. 

The next big provision of the Affordable Care Act to go into effect in Michigan is the expansion of Medicaid eligibility. Governor Snyder signed the Healthy Michigan Plan into law on September 16, 2013, and the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) has been working to finalize details of the health plan since then, some of which are described in the Healthy Michigan Plan Handbook. Michigan had to submit a waiver to amend the current state Medicaid program to allow for the expansion of eligibility, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the revised waiver on December 30, 2013. 

It is not yet clear the exact date that people will begin to enroll in Medicaid after the expanded eligibility goes into effect. The program will be ready "sometime in April," MDCH Director James Haveman told the Detroit Free Press.

In the meantime, WHI members are attending training webinars and providing feedback on some aspects of the new Healthy Michigan Plan, such as a form that new enrollees will fill out to identify healthy behaviors they will pursue with the new plan. 

MDCH's first training on the Healthy Michigan Plan will be this coming Tuesday, March 4, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Register online for this free webinar. 

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The Washtenaw Health Initiative is a voluntary, county-wide collaboration focused on how to improve access to coordinated care for the low-income, uninsured, and Medicaid populations. The effort includes representatives from the University of Michigan Health System, Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, health plans, county government, community services, physicians, and safety net providers.

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