The state opened registration Monday for people who beginning in January can get health insurance through an expanded Medicaid program. Registration is through a new website officials hope most people will use to get enrolled.
The website, Benefits.ohio.gov, asks users a series of questions to determine if they are eligible for Medicaid under the new regulations, and helps them enroll if they are. If they are not eligible, it also provides a link to the federal insurance exchange site, Healthcare.gov.
Newly enrolled applicants will eligible for coverage beginning Jan. 1.
The state does not anticipate the kind of trouble the federal government encountered with Healthcare.gov in October, said Sam Rossi, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Medicaid.
“We’ve had folks working around the clock to make sure the website is functioning,” Rossi said. “We’re encouraging people, when they are able to, to go through the website.”
The state “flipped the switch,” Rossi said, at 6 a.m. Monday. By 11 a.m. about 450 people had enrolled. By later in the afternoon, about 3:30 p.m., the number had risen to 1,165.
The computer system itself is new, replacing one that was 32 years old, Rossi said. By 2015, the state intends to integrate the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families into the same computer system.
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