by Sara Nassof
Panelists:
- Steward Desmond, Executive Director, West Side Campaign Against Hunger
- Arline Cruz, Lead Enrollment Specialist, Make the Road New York
- Nataliya Chernaya, Senior Navigator, Yeled v’Yalda’s New York State of Health Office
- Errol Pierre, Assistant Vice President, Healthfirst
Moderator: Marjorie Cadogan, Executive Deputy Commissioner, New York City Human Resource Administration’s Office of Citywide Health Insurance Access
In this session the panelists, Health Care Navigators, discussed the organizations that they represent and their mission to raise awareness about health care. A health care navigator is a person or organization that is trained to assist persons in obtaining and learning about health care options available to them in the Marketplace. All Health Care Navigators who presented on the panel represent organizations that specialize in assisting New Yorkers in enrolling in medical health plans. Moreover, all of the organizations specialize in reaching hard-to-reach populations.
In New York, more than nine million people are currently enrolled in either Medicaid or a private insurance program. Approximately 500,000 of these participants in health insurance are residents of New York City. The panelists discussed the history of health insurance in New York City and how the role of Health Care Navigators was developed. Today, Health Care Navigators help residents of New York City take advantage of available programs and enroll in health insurance.
The panelists all agreed that the best way to get people involved in the discussion of health insurance starts with identifying the needs of the family or individuals, and then following through with these individuals and families to target their needs as they may change with the passage of time.… <Read More>