Ginger Keckler is a Kalamazoo resident who, as of three months ago, gained<\/p>\n
comprehensive health insurance thanks to Healthy Michigan (Michigan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s version of the<\/p>\n
Medicaid expansion enacted under the ACA). Ginger works at Goodwill Industries in the<\/p>\n
commercial department, grading and hanging clothes, which is where her boss Kym Hollars<\/p>\n
informed her about her probable eligibility for health care under the Medicaid expansion.<\/p>\n
Ginger was on Goodwill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health plan at that point, yet only dental and optical was covered<\/p>\n
through her work. As she was interested in getting more inclusive health insurance, and was<\/p>\n
definitely not interested in being fined, Ginger allowed Kym (a certified applications counselor)<\/p>\n
to guide her through the enrollment process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
While deciding to enroll was a fairly easy decision, actually succeeding in the enrollment<\/p>\n
process was another story. Ginger tried multiple times over the course of a few weeks to enroll<\/p>\n
in an insurance plan online, but kept getting kicked out of the system due to computer and<\/p>\n
website issues. Not only was being unable to successfully complete the application frustrating,<\/p>\n
but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I panicked when it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ginger said. Luckily, though, after a few frustrating<\/p>\n
weeks, Ginger was able to successfully enroll in a new health insurance plan, and once the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sign-<\/p>\n
up worked, [the enrollment process] didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take too long.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When asked how she chose the<\/p>\n
insurance plan she did, Ginger laughed and said she picked the one \u00e2\u20ac\u0153with the cheapest copay.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Ginger gives Kym the majority of the credit for her newly insured health status, as not<\/p>\n
only did Kym first tell her about the opportunity to gain health care, but guided Ginger through<\/p>\n
the online enrollment process. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand things, Kym filled in the blanks,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Ginger reported. Kym was the one who encouraged Ginger to keep trying when her initial<\/p>\n
attempts to enroll were deterred by faulty website issues. The level of credit Ginger ascribes to<\/p>\n
Kym concerning her newly-insured health status underscores the importance of informed,<\/p>\n
competent helpers during the application process in order to facilitate signing up for insurance<\/p>\n
online. Additionally, the presence of navigators or CACs (certified applications counselors) is<\/p>\n
especially helpful for those who work full time (like Ginger), as they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the luxury of<\/p>\n
enough free time to spend hours sitting in front of a computer dealing with problems that may<\/p>\n
have come up when trying to enroll.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thanks to now having quality health insurance, Ginger feels more secure about her health<\/p>\n
in the future. As Ginger put it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to have [health insurance] and not even have to use it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
While Ginger says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I only go to the doctor if absolutely necessary; I hate needles,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she is glad<\/p>\n
that the medications and shots she needs for her bad knee are now covered. Though clearly not<\/p>\n
spending too much money was a concern, Ginger seemed confident she could pay her new plan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/p>\n
premiums well enough. Overall, Ginger was positive about gaining comprehensive health<\/p>\n
insurance, and glad to have shared her story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An interview with Ginger Keckler, an employee at Goodwill Industries and Kalamazoo resident. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}