On April 1st, 2014, the Healthy Michigan Plan—Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program—officially began. This act significantly impacted health outcomes for Washtenaw County’s most vulnerable by increasing eligibility for Medicaid to residents at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line. The next week, on April 9th, the Medicaid & Insurance Exchange Outreach & Enrollment workgroup hosted two trainings for case managers, social workers, and enrollment specialists about the Healthy Michigan expansion program. In concert with these efforts, the Primary Care Capacity workgroup trained staff at local clinics to assist with Medicaid, Healthy Michigan Plan, and marketplace enrollment.
The MMOE workgroup also began to prepare for the first open enrollment period, which would launch on October 1st, 2014. Eight months before the open enrollment marketplace would open, the workgroup—with help from the Washtenaw Health Plan—began identifying people best suited to serve as marketplace navigators at local organizations, who would later help people understand, choose, and then enroll in a healthcare plan.