On Saturday, November 2nd, PACE officially begins offering services as a home of In-Person Counselors for the Affordable Care ActFrom 10am to 2pm, PACE staff will be on hand to provide information, answer questions, and even begin the signup process which can be broken in to two primary stages, and a similar number of appointments.

During the first appointment, you as the consumer will sit down with PACE staff to discuss your family’s current insurance situation, household composition, family finances, and other factors which can impact the types of coverage you are available for. All information which you provide during this appointment will be kept confidential, and PACE staff will not keep copies of any of your financial information. This appointment is designed for us to get to know you, and for you to get information on how the Affordable Care Act and the Marketplace can benefit you and your family.

The ultimate result of this appointment in a lot of cases will be the submission of what’s called an “Eligibility Determination.” This determination will tell you what kinds of premium tax credits (payments from the federal government to help cover the cost of your premiums) you may be eligible for, as well as if you qualify for cost-sharing subsidies (payments from the federal government to help cover out-of-pocket costs), or even if you or your family may be eligible for programs like Medicaid, All Kids, or other insurance options.

Once you receive your eligibility determination, you can come back to select your insurance coverage. And during this second appointment, we will go through the different coverage levels, benefits of different types of plans, give you options for any initial premium payments you may be responsible for, and let you know when your coverage will begin.

This appointment is designed to help understand your different options, and to ensure that you select the plan which best fits your needs and wants. You are encouraged to bring a list of your prescriptions, have in mind your the doctors you frequent, and know what types of services you like to utilize. All of this information will ensure that you can select the plan which best covers all of these facets of your healthcare.

We hope to see you on Saturday at 1317 E Florida Ave in Urbana (right behind Papa John’s near Florida and Philo). If you have any questions about this event, or these PACE services in general, you can contact Michelle at (217) 344.5433(voice), (217) 689.0289(video phone), or by email michelle@pacecil.org.