STARKVILLE — Roughly 43 percent of Mississippians, between the ages of 19 and 26, don’t have health insurance.
But Lateshia Butler, the program manager for the regional office of Health Help Mississippi, and others are working to ensure every Mississippian is insured.
“To be honest, I think there is some sort of health insurance available to every one of those people,” said Butler.
Last week, Health Help Mississippi held the grand opening of its new regional office at 1414 N. Jackson St. in Starkville. HHM is a non-profit organization committed to providing support, resources and health education. It is funded through the Community Exchange Development program of the Mississippi Insurance Department.
Butler, a Starkville native, returned to her hometown to open the regional office, which serves 21 counties in Mississippi from the Alabama border to the Louisiana border, including Oktibbeha, Clay, Lowndes and Webster counties.
The new office’s first initiative is focused on young adults, although future efforts will hit just about every other demographic group, including small business owners, senior adults and families with children.
“We chose to start with the young adult group, because the timing seemed to make sense,” Butler said. “It’s graduation time, and there are a lot of students who will be going out in the job market and they are not sure about what is available to them.”
The initiative will focus on helping young adults identify the best health insurance programs available to them. In many cases, Butler said, young adults are simply unaware of their options. The 19-26 age group has the highest percentage of uninsured people, among Mississippians.
“A lot of those people don’t realize that the Affordable Care Act has opened up some new possibilities,” Butler said. “For example, students can stay on their parents’ insurance, until age 26. So there are some new options, but we’ve found in talking with a lot of young adults that there are even some programs that have been around for years that they aren’t aware of.”
“We sit down and talk to them, get their information and then tell them what their options are,” Butler continued. “It could be anything, from staying on your parents insurance, to Medicare — a lot of people are eligible who may not realize it — to insurance plans provided through the state. And if they don’t qualify for those, we’ll help them find a private policy they can afford. Sometimes there are discounts available for those policies.”
Butler said her office is eager to provide information and counseling to anyone who has a need.
“We’re excited to be here in Starkville,” Butler said. “Before we opened this office, people had to call the main offices in Jackson. But with an office here, we hope more Mississippians will find it easier to get the information they need. Our goal is for every Mississippian to have health insurance.”
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