When the Washtenaw Health Initiative was founded in 2010, approximately 28,900 Washtenaw County residents were uninsured. While WHI leaders recognized that many of these residents would be eligible for insurance when the Affordable Care Act went into full effect in 2014, they believed that the county’s residents would need help learning about their eligibility, applying for benefits, and enrolling in an insurance plan that would meet their needs.
The Medicaid and Marketplace Outreach and Enrollment Work Group was launched to lead this work. Since 2014, work group members have helped tens of thousands of local residents apply for affordable health insurance.
Today, the work group is focused on eliminating barriers to Medicaid and Marketplace enrollment, particularly for vulnerable populations in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti and for students of local universities including University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Eastern Michigan University, and Washtenaw Community College.