Healthy Michigan enrollment has topped 300,000

More Michigan residents have signed up for the state’s Medicaid expansion program than state officials originally expected.

Enrollment for the Healthy Michigan Plan opened on April 1st. Since then, more than 300,000 residents have registered for it through the Department of Human Services. An AMCAB employee in Marquette says many of the people she’s helped sign up through DHS have never had health care coverage before.

“So it’s actually coming down to educating them about what is a copay, what’s a deductible, what’s an enrollment period,” AMCAB Region 1 navigator Michelle Dillinger said. “We are doing that as far as education goes, literacy on health insurance.”

To be eligible for Healthy Michigan, you have to be between 19 and 64 years old. You can’t be eligible for Medicaid or Medicare, and you have to be earning 133% of the federal poverty level or less. That’s about $16,000 for a single person.

“Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” Dillinger said. “I think you run into a brick wall because people may not have had health insurance and may be feeling a little uncertain because they don’t understand the whole thing. That’s what we’re here for. They can come in, and we’ll sit down with them and explain the process and help them through it.”

State officials were expecting 320,000 residents to sign up for Healthy Michigan in its first year, but almost as many people have done so in 11 weeks. If you want to enroll or find out if you’re eligible, you can dial 1-855-789-5610 toll-free or go online to one of two websites: www.mibridges.michigan.gov or www.healthymichiganplan.org.