DES MOINES, IA — The deadline to enroll in Marketplace health insurance coverage for 2023 is January 15th.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a record amount of grant funding to organizations that provide free help to consumers needing help enrolling in health coverage. In Iowa, First Choice Services was awarded $295,350 to continue and expand its IA Navigator program. The program provides free assistance to people finding and selecting healthcare options through the Marketplace, Medicaid, and CHIP.

So far, during the 10th Marketplace Open Enrollment, Iowa is seeing an increase in enrollment this year, with 6.56% more people enrolling than last year. Jeremy Smith, IA Navigator Director, says that the increased funding has helped the program expand and get the word out about the Marketplace. “The historic increase in funding for our program last year, and then again this year, has helped our program increase our enrollments from last year,” Smith says. “Our Navigators have been working hard to help get the word out to people about the benefits of the Marketplace, and we are excited to see how the rest of Open Enrollment goes!”

Even with the increase in enrollment numbers this year, many Iowans lack health insurance. IA Navigator is encouraging anyone who does not have health insurance to check into the Marketplace. “Most people will qualify for substantially lower costs this year if they get their insurance on the Marketplace,” said Jeremy Smith. “We are urging people to look at the new plans and prices released this year. In many cases, the plans are more affordable than we have ever seen. Even if you have looked into insurance on the Marketplace in past years and were not very happy, you should look into it again this year.” Smith says getting help signing up is essential, as many people are overwhelmed by the options or may not realize how to shop for affordable health coverage.

Consumers returning to the Health Insurance Marketplace this year can expect to see some critical updates and expansions. New rules will expand eligibility to those previously blocked from getting the coverage because they had an offer of insurance through an employer. This fix to the “Family Glitch” will expand eligibility to thousands of families. Additionally, the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act secured enhanced subsidies and locked in lower prices for Marketplace plans for three more years. It also ensured that higher-income earners could continue to enroll in subsidized coverage.

It is important that Iowans pay attention to Open Enrollment deadlines. The last day to enroll in 2023 is January 15th unless you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period. To help as many people meet this deadline as possible, IA Navigator will be available by phone all week and on Saturday, January 14th, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. IA Navigator will also be available by phone on Sunday, January 15th, from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm. Free assistance from the IA Navigator program is available by calling 515-978-9570 or visiting www.ACANavigator.com.

By Matt Kelley (Radio Iowa)

State traffic safety officials are singling out five Iowa counties where crashes, injuries and deaths are the worst to focus efforts on changing driver behaviors and making roads safer.

Brett Tjepkes, chief of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says the initiative is called the High Five Rural Traffic Safety Project and it’s now underway in Appanoose, Fremont, Humboldt, Keokuk and Mitchell counties.

Tjepkes says, “How we selected the High Five counties is, we looked at some of these underserved areas that have a higher incidence of drivers and passengers not wearing their seatbelts involved in crashes and not wearing their seatbelts, meaning, either seriously injured or killed.”

The High Five project involves a three-tier approach, including law enforcement, engineering, and education with the ultimate goal of building safer communities. In the engineering portion, experts from the Iowa DOT are teaming up with the Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University.

“They’ll meet with local engineers and look at some of these crash locations and try to find are there some low-cost engineering solutions that we might be able to implement that could reduce crashes in certain areas,” Tjepkes says. “Some of these examples may be just some better painting, markings that are on the roadway, or signage, or wider shoulders.”

The education portion of High Five targets drivers of all ages, but also tries to reinforce certain messages with teenagers, before they might form bad driving habits. “We partner with an organization called Seatbelts Are For Everyone, or SAFE,” Tjepkes says. “The SAFE program works with local school districts to have some peer-to-peer type of education opportunities, the importance of wearing seatbelts and other traffic safety topics with high school-age kids.”

A recent study found nearly three-quarters of all deadly crashes in Iowa take place on secondary rural roads, and most of Iowa’s roads are considered secondary. Tjepkes says Iowans have a great national score for seatbelt use, but some people continue to ignore the law.

“Almost 96% of Iowans wear their seatbelts, but also 45% of the people killed in crashes are not wearing their seatbelts,” Tjepkes says. “So this one thing is, with what we’re doing, we really feel that we can make an impact and save people’s lives by encouraging them to wear their seatbelts through programs like the High Five.”

Preliminary numbers show 338 people died in traffic accidents on Iowa’s roads in 2022, a number that’s down from the past few years. Iowa hasn’t had fewer than 300 traffic deaths in a year since 1925.