Obamacare entered into its full implementation phase at the stroke of Midnight on October 1st, and it did not disappear as John Boehner and the GOP had hoped. Healthcare.gov immediately went active allowing the creation of accounts for uninsured Americans to begin applying for healthcare plans. Despite Tea party Republicans’ efforts to defund Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land and implementation is being rolled out as planned. However, they did manage to accomplish a government shutdown which will affect over 800,000 federal employees and a host of government services around the country.
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the first ever White House Briefing specifically for social work professionals. We received lots of resources and tool kits that I will be sharing in a series of articles to help consumers, helping professionals, and small businesses better understand the benefits as well as addressing the myths of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
In an article written by the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work Policy, it eloquently captured the essence and purpose of the briefing:
Led by Council of Social Work Education (CSWE) President Dr. Darla Spence Coffey, about 160 social workers were enthusiastically welcomed into the historic Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building today for a White House briefing for social workers titled:Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in a New Era: The Role of Social Work Education. Several senior White House officials participated in four panels addressing the importance of social workers as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act moves into a new phase October 1, when the health insurance exchanges are open for business.
This was a day when those of us fortunate to receive an invitation could be especially proud to be social workers. It was a day when the value of our training and our contributions were recognized in a major way by the Obama Administration. We were greeted by Paul Monteiro from the White House Office of Public Engagement headed by Obama Administration Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett. He acknowledged the importance of the critical roles social workers must play to ensure the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Read Full Article
Consumers, small businesses, and helping professionals can also get information directly from the Healthcare.gov website as well as its twitter profile using the hashtag #getcovered and #healthplans. Obamacare will not only connect you with healthcare plans, but dental plans are also an option:
Thanks for joining us today! If you have any more questions, give us a call at 1-800-318-2596 (TTY): 1-855-889-4325 #GetCovered
— HealthCare.gov (@HealthCareGov) September 30, 2013
Want to learn more about some of the main provisions of Obamacare? View the video below:
Photo Credit: Cinderella Courtesy of Disney; Darla Coffey at White House Briefing taken by Deona Hooper, MSW
