ATLANTA – The City of Atlanta announced today its participation in the White House “Healthy Communities Challenge,” an initiative to actively inform communities that have a high percentage of uninsured individuals about the Affordable Care Act. The initiative will encourage Atlanta residents to consider Health Insurance Marketplace coverage.
Since the Affordable Care Act’s coverage provisions have taken effect, the adult uninsured rate in Georgia dropped from 21 percent in 2013 to 15 percent in 2015. However, in Atlanta and the surrounding region, there are 304,000 uninsured residents who are still eligible for the Marketplace.
“We are excited to participate in the White House Healthy Communities Challenge and will work hard to reduce the number of uninsured residents in the City of Atlanta,” said Mayor Kasim Reed. “It is our responsibility to ensure that all Atlantans have access to health care services, regardless of their wealth or income.”
The City of Atlanta is proactively looking for partnerships with a variety of organizations throughout the metropolitan region to reduce the number of uninsured residents. Open enrollment for the 2016 Marketplace insurance plan ends on December 15, 2015.
At the end of this third open enrollment period, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with state-based Marketplaces, will publish tallies of new Marketplace signups in participating communities. These tallies will be compared to HHS estimates of the number of eligible uninsured people at the start of open enrollment to see which communities made the most progress during the challenge.
The city that wins the challenge with the most newly-insured residents will receive a visit from President Obama to celebrate their success.
In addition to Atlanta, the White House reached out to the following cities to join the challenge: Milwaukee, WI; Charlotte, NC; Nashville, TN; Chicago, IL; New Orleans, LA; Dallas, TX; Oakland, CA; Denver, CO; Philadelphia, PA; Detroit, MI; Phoenix, AZ; Great Falls, MT; Richmond, VA; Kansas City, MO; Salt Lake City, UT; Las Vegas, NV; Seattle, WA; Long Beach, CA; and Tampa, FL.
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