Insurers, Advocates Step Up Health Care Enrollment Events As Deadline Nears
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With the deadline to sign up for health insurance closing in, insurers and advocates are stepping up enrollment events. Independence Blue Cross held three simultaneous events, Thursday.
The hot coffee was a big draw on a frigid day in Love Park, where Blue Cross set up a tent to make it easy for folks to drop in and sign up.
"I'm not really sure how it works, I'm excited for him to show me about the process because I never had health insurance. I don't know how it works and how much an average person pays. My parents always took care of it for me," Arik Dayan said.
Dayan is in that particularly sought-after group, under 35. More so-called "young invincible" are signing up as the deadline gets closer, according to Blue Cross Product Services Director Koleen Cavanaugh.
"We had about 23 percent in January and now about 31 percent of our enrollments are in the young invincible population so we've definitely seen an uptick," Cavanaugh said.
The goal is to get that up to 40 percent.
Arik was only vaguely aware of the deadline. He says peer pressure got him there.
My friend also told me she just got it on healthcare.gov yesterday and I was like, whoa, I should check it out," Dayan said.
Events are scheduled throughout the region up to the deadline, March 31st.
