Chron.com - Houston Leaders make Enrollment Push Before Obamacare Deadline

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By Rebecca Hennes

Alicia Elatassi didn't think she needed health insurance when she was young, healthy and seemingly invincible.

She got a shot of reality when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago. Her mother, also uninsured, needed a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. The family had to rely on charity to foot the bill for the treatment.

Enrolling in Obamacare - the Affordable Care Act -was a no-brainer for the now 39-year-old mother of two who has an extensive family history of cancer. She cut her premiums in half by going through the marketplace when it launched last year.

"If I'm not healthy ... then I'm not going to be there for those kids," Elatassi said. "As a mom, I would put myself second, third, fourth, I would think about them first."

1 million Texans

Elatassi enrolled in Obamacare last March and now pays $342 a month for preventive health care. After a genetic test for breast cancer came back negative, Elatassi said she feels relieved and is grateful for her health insurance.

"I feel like I can actually go out there and be who I want to be and not feel like I have that in the back of my mind," she said.

Elatassi is among millions of Americans who utilizes Obamacare. She shared her story with key politicians at a community center in southwest Houston Saturday in hopes of enrolling as many people as possible in the program before the Sunday night deadline.

Speakers included U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, who was instrumental in developing the health care bill.

Just over 1 million Texans, including about 270,000 in Houston, have selected or are automatically enrolled in the program. The majority qualify for financial assistance with an average stipend of $242 a month, Burwell said.

Saving lives, costs

Burwell cited several benefits of the law, including increasing the age limit for dependents to be covered on their parents' insurance to 26, eradicating the practice of charging higher prices for women and ending annual and lifetime limits. Pre-existing conditions no longer prevent people from gaining coverage, and the cost of Medicare has decreased by a projected $116 billion, she said.

"That's lives saved, and that's dollars saved," Burwell said. "

Jackson Lee applauded the involvement of organizations like the Southwest Multi-Service Center and encouraged Hispanics there to seek coverage. She said it was emotional to listen to residents' accounts at the community center.

"We have testimonies that contribute to saving lives," she said. "These are moving moments about what the affordable care act really means - the affordable care act is a civil-rights act."

Green agreed, emphasizing that the residents he met really did have affordable plans, ranging from $180 a month to $56 a month.

"Health care now is affordable by working people, and we want every working person to know that they can get help to get health care. And even if you're not working, you can still get help to get your health care."

Spreading the word

For Jackson Lee, Green and Burwell, community-based programs like Saturday's are critical to spreading the word about Obamacare enrollment. To date, nearly 2.1 million people have been reached through such efforts.

"Many good people hear about it but they don't totally understand what this is all about," Green said. "So now you have given us a new dimension, a new means by which we can approach people and make sure they are enrolled."

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