Abstract

Development of a faith-based program to expand numbers of people with healthcare coverage

Albert W. Pless, MS, Arshia Wajid, MPH, MBA and Faseeha Altaf, MPH
American Muslim Health Professionals, Rolling Meadows, IL

APHA 2017 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 4 - Nov. 8)

Provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) sought to expand coverage for all persons. A common obstacle to enrollment was lack of awareness of ACA coverage options. We developed a program to promote the understanding of the ACA and to expand the numbers of people with coverage focusing on American Muslim, urban, and hard-to-reach communities. The Connecting Americans to Coverage (CAC) program,ran from November 1, 2016 through January 31, 2017, and aimed to identify persons in need of health insurance coverage and disseminate health insurance information. CAC instated 6 liaisons in 6 federal marketplace states (CA, IL, NY, MI, MN, GA). CAC developed and distributed faith-based resources, defined as interfaith community-based enrollment events and open-access, information about the Health Insurance Marketplaces in relevant states and information on how to enroll in healthcare coverage. We found that aggressive outreach is critical to increasing enrollment, particularly in minority communities. Experiences in 6 states demonstrated that the number of insured people in urban and hard-to-reach communities could be increased with careful planning and personalized outreach to marginalized communities to raise ACA awareness. One strategy to expand the numbers of people with healthcare coverage is to partner with local organizations such as religious institutions, and community centers. Moving forward, it will be critical for stakeholders to identify effective efforts to raise awareness of healthcare coverage options. Better outreach aimed to increase consumer awareness of coverage options and provide assistance for enrollment helps increase the numbers of people with coverage.

Advocacy for health and health education Diversity and culture Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs Provision of health care to the public Public health or related education