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Partnerships and Dispersed Personal Help Characterize Outreach and Enrollment in Illinois

• The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Get Covered Illinois worked together to partner with organizations and providers statewide to provide in-person assistance to people wanting to enroll in health care coverage.
• IDPH made grants to six local health departments (LHDs) and funded the Illinois Association of Public Health Administrators to grant funds to other LHDs statewide.
• Some LHDs set up programs targeted at difficult-to-enroll populations, such as people with low literacy, immigrants, and people recently released from prison.

Outreach and Enrollment Efforts Face Challenges

• Challenges include difficulties with the federal Healthcare.gov website, the amount of information in-person assisters had to convey during enrollment appointments, low levels of literacy, weak understanding of insurance, inadequate computer experience, and clients choosing lowest-premium plans for expediency even though those plans might not be the most cost-effective for them in practice.
• Enrolling immigrants and people in households with mixed citizenship status also proved difficult. For some, confusion about eligibility was a barrier to seeking information about enrollment. In some cases, non–English-language resources were perceived to be unhelpful. Also, grant-receiving organizations did not all have experience in these kinds of outreach and enrollment activities and took longer to develop effective strategies.

Some Factors Help Outreach and Enrollment Efforts

• The primary facilitators were trust, partnership, and the availability of federal resources for enrollment.
• LHDs are vital in outreach and enrollment efforts because they can leverage existing partnerships with other community organizations.