Healthy People. Healthy Choices. Healthy Lake County.
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Carmella Albano’s story of how she came to enroll in the Affordable Care
Act’s health insurance Marketplace is not unusual.
The Lindenhurst resident spent the first part of her work life as an
accountant and then became a math teacher. She worked for 12 years in
Chicago Public Schools until her school was closed. Her last full-time job
was as a substitute teacher for a year.
The continuation of her employer health insurance (COBRA) ended
in March 2013. Because of a pre-existing condition, Albano could not
get coverage from a private health insurance provider so she used her
savings to obtain health insurance through the Illinois Comprehensive
Health Insurance Plan (Illinois CHIP).
When the online health insurance marketplace became available in
October, she submitted an application on her own. In December, when she still had not heard anything about
her coverage, she contacted the Lake County Health Department and scheduled an appointment with Enroll
Lake County! navigator Linda Santos.
After meeting with Linda, Albano realized she should have called the Health Department sooner. She had to
pay a 70 percent increase in ICHIP from December to January – which ended up being $1,100 for one month of
coverage.
As Albano said, with the navigator’s help, “I found a policy that works for me. It’s not a Cadillac policy, but
it’s a Chevy which is okay,” she said, adding that the policy is much better than the ICHIP policy she had. The
navigator, she said, was very caring about her situation.
She is now paying $200 a month for her health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, and she said people
should stop listening to the negative comments made in the media about the health insurance marketplace.
Instead, Albano said people should call their local health department if they have questions and sit down with
a navigator.
As Albano said, “They walk you through the application. They show you the options and, in the end, you still
have a choice.”
Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center 2013 Annual Report
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