Non Profit helps Clients find Insurance Options Amid Layoffs

April 16, 2009 by Jennifer Brandt  
Filed under Featured Articles, Health

With the state’s unemployment rate topping 10 percent, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner highlighted a Web site Thursday that’s designed to help people who may have lost their health insurance along with their jobs.

The Web site, coverageforall.org, is run operatedby a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization in San Jose called the Foundation for Health Coverage Education in San Jose.  The organization also runs a help line at 800-234-1317.  The Web site and hotline are designed to provide access to hundreds of state and federal health insurance programs that meet a wide variety of individual needs.

“A lot of people don’t know these programs exist,” founder Phil Lebherz said in a press release. “What we are doing is making it easier for people in need to access all of their local and statewide options.”

Even before the recession, the federal government estimated that almost one in five Californians lacked health insurance at some point during the last 12 months, Poizner said in a press release. In January alone, nearly 80,000 Californians lost their jobs and their likely source of health insurance, Poizner said.

“There are resources out there, both public andprivate, that can help people who don’t have health insurance and want to know what their options are.”

Source: Sacramento Business Journal

Author: Kathy Robertson

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