Troy Wilde, Public News Service - NM
President Barack Obama's pledge to fix the technical issues plaguing healthcare.gov will help New Mexico and several other states. Obama is promising to improve functionality on the website where Americans are trying to enroll in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
New Mexico's health exchange, bewellnm.com, which is linked to healthcare.gov, also is experiencing delays.
Danielle Boudreau, administration and communications manager with the advocacy group Health Action New Mexico, urges users to be patient with a popular program that can help a huge number of people.
"Absolutely, it's broadly popular,” she says. “We have almost 400,000 people in this state who are newly eligible for Medicaid expansion or the marketplace. "
Boudreau says New Mexico's health exchange is a hybrid where business owners purchase insurance through bewellnm.com and the general public gets insurance through healthcare.gov. However, all users within the state need to start the process through bewellnm.com.
Boudreau says New Mexico is among the states most in need of affordable health insurance. "Yes, New Mexico has the second highest rate of un-insurance in the country,” she says. “So it is a big deal for our state for all of these folks to be able get insured. "
Open enrollment in the ACA started Oct. 1 and continues through March 31. The first health insurance policies take effect Jan. 1.
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