Enrollment in exchanges key to health law success

Politico notes that enrollment in online marketplaces in California, Florida and Texas will have an outsized impact on whether the Obama administration achieves its nationwide goals for expanding coverage. Other outlets report how states will market the new insurance plans and how some Americans are confused by health insurance generally and Obamacare in particular.

Politico: The Swing States Of Obamacare
Three states could have an outsize role in the success -; or failure -; of Obamacare. California, Florida and Texas are home to more than one-third of the nation's 46 million uninsured people. If the White House and its allies can't convince large chunks of the uninsured in those three states to enroll in the Affordable Care Act's new insurance exchanges, the administration could have a very hard time reaching its enrollment goals (Haberkorn, 8/21).

PBS Newshour: Twitter Chat: Will Health Insurance Exchanges Be A Benefit Or A Burden?
Open enrollment for health insurance exchanges begins Oct. 1. The Obama administration is hoping to enroll 7 million people in the exchanges by the end of March 2014, including 2.5 million young, healthy people. Young Americans are the key to the success of the program, but whether the exchanges will benefit them and if they will sign up for them are still big unknowns (Shirvell, 8/21).

Kaiser Health News: States Use Out-Of-The-Box Approaches To Raise Awareness Of Health Exchanges
Catchy jingles? Splashy videos? Multi-million-dollar public education campaigns? For the 16 states and the District of Columbia that have opted to run their own online health insurance marketplaces, these are among the tools being used to make sure residents know the exchanges will be open for business Oct. 1. … Here's an alphabetical list of state exchanges and a sampling of their strategies, ranging from clever advertising to unique health exchange names (Miller, 8/21).

Stateline: State Resistance To Federal Government Goes Back To US Beginnings
The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but that hasn't stopped a handful of states from doing what they can to gum up its implementation. Take Missouri: The state isn't expanding Medicaid, it isn't opening its own health insurance exchange, and it is barring local and state officials from cooperating in any way with the federal insurance exchange (Ollove, 8/22).

The Associated Press: Jobs Available Under Obama Health Law In Illinois
Working on a tight timeframe, Illinois is building an 800-person army of temporary workers to help people sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The "in-person counselor" jobs, located in every corner of the state, range from a $9-an-hour part-time evening job in Clinton County to a $45,000-a-year project coordinator position in Chicago for someone with experience in community organizing and public speaking (Johnson, 8/21).

Medpage Today: Young Adults Unaware Of ACA Exchanges
Only 27 percent of young adults said they were aware of the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges that are launching Oct. 1, a survey released Wednesday showed. Furthermore, those most likely to benefit from the ACA's exchanges and expanded coverage are the least likely to be aware of the exchanges, the liberal Commonwealth Fund said in the survey "Covering Young Adults Under the Affordable Care Act." Just 19 percent of young adults who were uninsured in the last year and 18 percent of low-income adults were aware of the exchanges -- or marketplaces, as they are sometimes called -- according to the survey (Pittman, 8/21).

California Healthline: Obamacare Obstacle: Consumers' Confusion When Picking A Plan
HealthCare.gov would like you to answer a few questions before considering policies offered through the new health insurance exchanges. For many, the problems start there. Recent surveys show that U.S. residents are confused by Obamacare -- and, more generally, by health insurance -- which has led some observers to question whether the exchanges' open enrollment period will proceed smoothly or be too overwhelming for those who would benefit most from the reform law (Wayt, 8/21).

Health News Florida: Navigator Fears Called Political 'Hype'
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act say Florida officials' concern about a program that will help uninsured people sign up for coverage has no foundation in fact. There is no danger that so-called "navigators" will steal people's identities or feed information into a giant federal database, said Greg Mellowe, policy director for the consumer group Florida CHAIN. The group is one of the non-profits that will get a share of federal grant money for the "navigator" program (Gentry, 8/21).