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Connecticut, like other states, launched an online health exchange -- Access Health CT -- where residents can shop for and purchase health insurance. There could be new opportunities for the unemployed or uninsured to receive health insurance. Here, we gather our coverage of changes under the new federal law.

State: Demand High for Obamacare Insurance

The Connecticut Mirror
The Access Health CT enrollment center storefront in New Britain.

The second round of open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act is underway. State officials say they've enrolled nearly 12,000 people in health insurance in the sign-up period's first week. 

Access Health CT is the state's insurance marketplace where consumers can shop for individual plans. Appearing on WNPR's Where We Live, interim CEO Jim Wadleigh said that demand last week was exceptionally high.

"We are seeing a lot of volume, much more than we had anticipated in the first week," Wadleigh said. "Which is great. Which means we still have continued pent-up demand in the state."

Wadleigh's phone operators saw the third-highest call volume last week since the exchange launched in 2013, he said. Of the new enrollees, 2,600 signed up for private insurance through the exchange. Those plans are eligible for subsidies. Nearly 9,000 singed up for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. While enrollment may be going well, it is apparently not without its glitches.

Credit Chion Wolf / WNPR
/
WNPR
Deb Polun, director of government affairs and media relations at the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut.

Deb Polun, director of government affairs and media relations at the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut, said on Where We Live that a lot of people are spending a long time on the phone looking for technical support.  

"The Access Health CT call center has been experiencing longer wait times than last year," Polun said. "Some of that is due to the fact that people, when they signed up last year, established a unique online ID and passcode which they probably haven't used in a year. They've now forgotten what that password is, and they need to call the call center,and get that reset. It's a very simple process to do, but there's a lot of people who need to do it."

During the first open enrollment and the months after, the exchange signed up more than 280,000 residents for private insurance or Medicaid. The exchange has a goal of signing up 72,000 more people during this second open enrollment, which runs through February 15.

Jeff Cohen started in newspapers in 2001 and joined Connecticut Public in 2010, where he worked as a reporter and fill-in host. In 2017, he was named news director. Then, in 2022, he became a senior enterprise reporter.

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