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PT library to host program on insurance

3 min read

Margaret Deitzer gets all kinds of questions as the reference librarian at Peters Township Public Library.

And lately, many of the questions she was getting are about health care, particularly the government health care site, www.healthcare.gov.

So, Deitzer and the library, along with Cornerstone Care of Waynesburg, will host “Finding Health Care Through the Health Care Marketplace,” from 7 to 8 p.m. Jan. 15 at the library with the goal of clearing up some of the mystery and confusion surrounding the still-controversial law. The public is welcome to attend.

“We are throwing it all out there,” Deitzer said. “People come in and out of jobs all of the time. Or, they may no longer be on the family’s insurance policy. They are scared and need to build confidence. With the information they are going to get at this program, they will be empowered.”

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” is a federal statute signed into law by President Obama in 2010. The goal of the program is to increase both the affordability and quality of health insurance for Americans. Under the law, insurance companies must cover all applicants within new minimum standards and offer the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or gender. To date, about 20 million Americans have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. People will not lose insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition. In addition, the law does away with annual and lifetime dollar limits, according to www.obamacarefacts.com. Previously, 60 percent of all bankruptcies were medical-related, and 75 percent of those happened to people with health insurance who had reached their coverage limits.

“People still don’t know there is help out there,” said Courtney Emrick, an outreach and enrollment specialist with Cornerstone Care, a healthcare nonprofit.

Emrick, who works in Cornerstone’s Washington office, will be the main speaker at the library program, which will cover a variety of topics such as what determines health insurance premiums, and what qualifies a person and families for tax cuts and cost-sharing reductions. She will talk about how a geographic area affects insurance plan rates and penalties for noncompliance. Plus, she will talk about insurance terminology, such as deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, which some people find daunting and are too embarrassed to ask what they mean. After the presentation, she will take questions from the audience and be available for future one-on-one appointments.

“There are different plans available,” Emrick said. “You have to find out what works best. The entire process can be overwhelming.”

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