California Racing To Meet Needs Of Affordable Care Act

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — California is in a race against time to roll out the first phase of the Affordable Care Act.

No longer counting the years, it's down to less than a few months, and there are concerns this is being rushed through.

Covered California is training more than 2,000 people to educate millions of Californians on how to receive health coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

"It's so exciting to be working to get paid, but to help? This is something great," said health-care educator Juan Malespin.

Learning in classrooms like the ones at UC Davis, these health educators are expected to be up to speed by the end of August, just two months before the state plans to begin registration on the health-care exchange website.

"They are going to be knocking on doors, participating in events and giving people information one-on-one, just to get the awareness going," said Covered California spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez.

If all goes as planned, Covered California hopes to have a site that allows individual payers and small-business owners to easily choose the best health plan that works for them.

"What this is doing is offering affordable, quality access to health care. As long as we get that message out, we can feel really positive about what we are doing," said enrollment trainer Dr. Chris Hickey.

But it's a race against the clock. California is starting to roll out the Affordable Care Act before any other state, and with coverage set to start on January 1, 2014, it leaves little room for error.

This concerns small-business advocates, such as John Kabateck.

"The concern we hear of business owners these days is how concerned and scared they are," said the state executive director for the National Federation of Independent Business. "Not only about Main Street, but about this health-care law that is so complex and has so many costs."

While Kabateck says some issues are being resolved, he believes lawmakers need to hit the pause button on rolling out health-care plans.

"At the end of the day, if this isn't being done effectively, and people don't get information that is always up to date, then no one is being served correctly."

There is also concern that the employees trained as educators could use your information against you.

State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones wrote in a statement that the position "allows [educators] to sell them all manner of bogus products, steal their identity gain access to certain assets they may have …"

Covered California claims they have adopted strict background checks, but does advise you to check before you hand over personal information.

Make sure you are asking them the right questions," Lopez said. "Their name, their grantee, or educator number. They will be assigned one through a known entity. And if you feel the information is too personal, then call us."

To put customers at ease, the health-care exchange also plans to send out so-called secret shoppers to ensure counselors are acting appropriately.

But it's not just security that's a cause of concern. Small-business owners are seeking a delay like the one given to companies that have more than 50 employees.

"We certainly hope they won't stop there," Kabateck said. "That the federal government will look to delay the individual mandate, the health-insurance tax, and other components that are just killing Main Street and jobs.

The delay for mandated coverage allows large companies to avoid payment penalties for at least one more year, but who currently do not offer some kind of plan will need to do so by 2015.