Local health department prepares for open enrollment deadline

A total of fourteen thousand people are now working in call centers around the country in anticipation of the quickly approaching open enrollment deadline for this year.

The Obama administration says this number reflects a forty percent increase in call center employees to handle registration on healthcare.gov.

Those new hires just started working Monday. The deadline to register for healthcare is February fifteenth.

In Worcester County, the Lower Shore Health Insurance Assistance Program is also available to help.

Katherine Gunby with the Worcester County Health Department says, “If people have a life changing event they might qualify for a special enrollment period and we can help with that all throughout the year. Also, if people are in an income threshold that gets them eligible with Medicaid, we can help them with that all year long. However, for people trying to get a tax credit, the next open enrollment period is in October of this year.”

The Lower Shore Health Insurance Assistance Program will be at UMES Thursday from five to seven to help folks on the shore register for healthcare.