New policy brief on “No wrong door” enrollment

A new brief by the CT Health Foundation describes “No Wrong Door” (NWD), the Affordable Care Act’s seamless plan for consumers to enroll in health coverage. NWD allows consumers seeking coverage to enter through an array of state agencies, be seamlessly routed to a common portal that will assess eligibility and needs, and connect them to the appropriate programs and resources for their circumstances. NWD is designed to simplify the dizzying array of programs and applications that consumers now have to navigate to participate in public coverage programs. Authors of the brief estimate that full implementation of NWD will result in about 20,000 more CT adults and 6,000 children with coverage, and will prevent another 36,000 state residents from losing coverage due to churning. It is expected that NWD will help close CT’s health equity gap by reaching people who might have remained uninsured.