Lee rolls out Obamacare bus tour

Covered California chief Peter Lee and associates are hitting the road to promote the coming open-enrollment season, which begins Nov. 15.

Lee is undertaking a nine day bus tour that’ll hit 21 cities in California — including the big three of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.

The big show appears to be in front of Los Angeles’ city hall on Nov. 14. As with other stops, Lee and company will be joined by “community partners and elected officials” in promoting the advantages of subsidized private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

“This bus tour builds on lessons we learned during the first open enrollment — that health care is regional, it’s local, and it’s personal,” Lee said. “We will share the stories of real people who have benefited from the care and coverage they have obtained and encourage those without insurance to get covered.”

The tour begins at the State Capitol on Nov. 10. Other stops include Petaluma, Gilroy, Fresno, San Bernardino, Palm Springs, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, Chico and Redding.

California’s Obamacare operation is promoting its services via the multilingual “I’m In” marketing campaign now under way.

The bus tour is one element of a $95 million community outreach campaign supported by federal grant funding provided for the implementation of Obamacare in its second year.

Covered California says it expects to gain about a half million enrollees after the 2015 signup:

Covered California anticipates a total enrollment of 1.7 million Californians by the end of the coming open-enrollment period — 1.5 million in subsidized coverage and 230,000 in unsubsidized coverage. This forecast represents an increase of about 500,000 in total enrollment (43 percent).

The enrollment process for the first year, 2014, went comparatively smoothly in California, but problems with a swamped call center and balky web site frustrated many potential enrollees and insurance agents. The online enrollment system went down recently, but Covered California said it has “refreshed” the web site. It also expanded call center hours and hired more bilingual staffers.

Open enrollment for the 2015 year begins Nov. 15 and ends Feb. 15. That’s significantly shorter than the signup period for 2014. “We will need to work harder to enroll those who are still uninsured,” Lee said.