Three years after it was enacted, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, remains both controversial and widely misunderstood.
On Saturday, Sept. 14, the University of Iowa Labor Center, a unit of the Division of Continuing Education, will present a one-day conference to provide reliable and useful information about the act and the new options for insurance coverage that will be available in Iowa starting on Jan. 1, 2014.
"Obamacare has been described as the most important piece of social legislation in the last 50 years, but very few people understand how it’s supposed to work or what it will do.”
—Matthew Glasson
The conference, with the theme "Health Care Going Forward: Implementation of the Affordable Care Act," will be Saturday, Sept. 14, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room 2520D of the University Capitol Centre on the second floor of the Old Capitol Town Center. Registration will be from 8 to 9 a.m.
“Obamacare has been described as the most important piece of social legislation in the last 50 years,” says conference coordinator and UI Labor Educator Matthew Glasson, “but very few people understand how it’s supposed to work or what it will do.”
The conference will include an overview of the law, but will mostly focus on the changes coming in 2014, including the creation of the state insurance “marketplace” and the expansion of Medicaid eligibility.
“There are more than 250,000 Iowans without any health insurance and many more who have insurance that is woefully inadequate," Glasson says. "Almost all those people will be eligible for coverage either under Medicaid expansion or for private insurance in the Iowa insurance Marketplace."
He adds that premiums in the marketplace should be affordable because they will not reflect people's health history or pre-existing conditions and the cost will be heavily subsidized by the federal government for most people.
“Iowa could see an historic increase in the percentage of people with access to health care in 2014, but it won’t happen unless people understand the options that are available now,” Glasson says.
Planners hope that the conference will enable participants to become health care resources in their organizations, their workplaces, and communities. Conference content will be relevant to community activists who work with low-income or uninsured people, social service agencies, religious and community leaders, labor union activists and leaders, as well as low-income or uninsured people who want to learn more about their options.
The afternoon session will include separate tracks for participants who are interested in enrollment issues or the Affordable Care Act's impact on collective bargaining.
The cost is $35 per person and includes instruction, materials, and lunch. The registration fee will be waived for low-income individuals.There is also a group discount—If your organization sends more than five participants to this program, the registration fee for participant number six or more is $25 per person.
There are three ways to register: call the UI Labor Center at 319-335-4144; send email to labor-center@uiowa.edu; or register online here.
The regular registration deadline is Sept. 3. Late registration is contingent upon availability.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this conference, call 319-335-4144 in advance of the conference.