A forum Tuesday in Ashland focuses on what the Affordable Care Act means for rural Nebraskans.
The Center for Rural Affairs is sponsoring the forum. Jon Bailey is Director of Research and Analysis. He the new health insurance marketplaces, which opened up October first, are especially important to rural areas.
"They’re focused on specific groups of people without health insurance, people in small businesses and then people who purchase health insurance on their own in the individual market. And all of those people, all of those groups, are larger numbers in rural areas than in other places. And so a lot of rural people, and probably a lot more rural people proportionally than rural people, will need to take advantage of the health insurance marketplaces."
Nebraska’s marketplace will be run by the federal government. In Iowa, it’s a state-federal partnership. Bailey says they hope to answer many of the questions rural Nebraskans have about the new system.
The forum begins at 5:15 pm in Ashland. More information is available at www.cfra.org.