Can anyone tell me if there are health insurance navigators in Oregon? Kid-3 (21, but developmentally more like a 14 or 15 year old) lives in Portland and has been without health insurance since November. Kid is overwhelmed and intimidated by the task of getting insurance, and needs to either be hand-held through the process by an understanding and patient professional, or I will have to make a special trip up there (from California) to help.
Kid probably won’t be able to manage it by phone. Are there offices to go to?
I would select “community partners.” If OR is anything like WA, community partners, financial assistance specialist with hospitals and doctors offices, and citizens who sign up through the health care site are all navigators.
Also in my experience: some are better than others by far. There is no standard training.
Some will meet you in a public location, some have their own office, some work with medical institutions.
If you’re interested in doing the setup work, I would make some phone calls and screen them for compatibility with your son.
This is definitely something @anomalily will know! I was on OHP like 7 or 8 years ago, but I did it via phone. I also had a lovely lady help me try to navigate all my resources when I went on food stamps, that was in person. Does Kid-3 qualify for food stamps or the jobs program? If you have a good DHS worker, IME they really help you access like everything you need.
Is Kid-3 likely to qualify for OHP/medicaid (less than $1,436 a month earned income for a single person). Because the best place to start is the DHS office for their neighborhood/region, with staff that are trained to be nice and patient and walk through all the options. They are also going to help if Kid-3 is qualified to get SNAP, subsidized bus passes, or any other resources.
If not, let me know, there’s a couple community orgs that have navigators for folks beyond the medicaid limit, most culturally-specific (native american health, GLBTQ+ health center, etc).
Thanks, everyone. I’m going to gather some income documents from Kid, and see about getting help from DHS. If we get stuck, @anomalily , I’ll come pester you again for info on the LGBTQ resources you have.
