Navigator and In-Person Assistance Programs: A Snapshot of State Programs

With the open enrollment period for health insurance exchanges less than six months away, consumers are already asking questions about their new health care options under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Even in the age of digital information, hands-on consumer assistance could play a key role in helping people understand their insurance choices come 2014 — a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed that two thirds of the uninsured and a majority of Americans overall say they have too little information to know how the ACA will affect them.

This brief discusses some of the key policy decisions states are making and briefly describes these programs in a handful of states. This brief is not intended to offer comprehensive examination of all state activity, but rather provides a snapshot of key decisions in a few states. States were included in this snapshot if they had released a detailed RFP or other policy documents describing how these assistance programs would be structured.

Issue Brief (.pdf)