Many remain in dark on health law

Hawaii residents will be able to choose from 95 health plans when open enrollment for "Obama­care" begins Oct. 1.

State officials and health industry executives held a news conference Tuesday to raise awareness of the need for all Hawaii residents to sign up for health coverage by Jan. 1 or face tax penalties.

"Every resident of our great state deserves high-quality, equitable health care," Gov. Neil Abercrombie said at the news conference at the Kokua Kalihi Valley clinic on North School Street.

State officials are concerned the public hasn’t yet picked up on what Obama­care will offer and what needs to be done to avoid penalties.

The state has launched the Hawaii Health Connector, an online health insurance marketplace, to assist residents in finding the health coverage best suited for them.

Despite an aggressive advertising campaign, most residents apparently don’t know much about the Hawaii Health Connector.

When asked, "How well informed are you about the Hawaii Health Connector and its purpose?" in an unscientific online poll, 77 percent, or 1,723 participants, answered, "What’s that?"

Only 4 percent said they were "very informed" in the poll on the Star-Advertiser’s website Sept. 4. Another 19 percent said they were "somewhat informed."

To help spread the word about the Hawaii Health Connector, 34 community organizations have been awarded $6.7 million in grants to reach out to their clients and others who may need to sign up for health insurance.

The money is earmarked to hire more than 190 so-called marketplace assisters to help consumers and small businesses on each island.

But with two weeks before open enrollment begins, many of the grass-roots community groups named as marketplace assisters haven’t been trained on the health law or plan options on the Connector.

"There isn’t a product yet. We have not yet seen the details of the plans, so there isn’t really anything to begin educating the public with right now," said David De­rauf, executive director of Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, which won up to $175,000 to educate and enroll people on the exchange. "We’re scrambling to find qualified personnel and train existing personnel with the new procedures. It’s an enormous undertaking."

Faith Action for Community Equity, another group selected for outreach, hasn’t signed a contract with the Connector yet because it is negotiating for more startup money.

"We’re not going to be out on the streets on Oct. 1. That’s not going to happen," said the Rev. Sam Domingo, president of FACE Oahu. "We don’t even have staff for that yet. You just can’t sign a contract one day and go out on the street the next. For organizations like ours, we don’t have a ready staff. We still have to be familiar about the policies that are available and which companies are offering them. We have no clue."

"We’re behind in terms of timing," Domingo said. "Many of us knew implementing the Affordable Care Act was going to be a challenge. It’s taken us this long to even get the award that should have been awarded back in July or June. We’re basically three months later, so what does that say about the start date?"

Hale Na‘au Pono, also known as Wai­anae Coast Community Mental Health Center Inc., is hiring outreach staff for the program.

"Ideally, in a perfect world we would have a lot more time," said Poha Sonoda-Burgess, interim program director at Hale Na‘au Pono. "But that’s not the reality, and we can’t do anything about it so we just have to try the best we can."