The deadline for the Affordable Health Care Act is looming, and Long Islanders may be scratching their heads about what type of health insurance will suit them best. A new website, LongIslandObamacare.com, was launched last week that seeks to clear up any misinformation and get the facts straight.
Site founder Jason Samel of Jaymar Insurance Agency, who was recently installed as the vice president of the Glen Cove Chamber of Commerce, says, “There is a lot of information out there about Obamacare, and it all has slants from different media sources. Frankly, it’s inaccurate, and the misinformation is confusing the public.”
As a result, his company launched www.longislandobamacare.com, a site that people can go to as a resource for information on the health care plan. Additionally, those interested can request a free seminar, and Samel and his team will present the information to small groups. He says they received their first request within 24 hours of launching the site.
“They told me their staff is confused and arguing about it, and they want to be better educated,” Samel says of the small business in Island Park who made the request.
Glen Cove resident Amy Peters is an example of someone who felt that confusion at the end of last year.
“In December, I was told my plan was no longer being offered…and the new plan was more expensive. I started poking around myself, and even when the glitches in the site were fixed, it was still very confusing to navigate. On top of that, I felt hard pressed for time…I contacted Jason and he walked me through it over the phone.”
Peters says she wound up with a comparable plan to what she had previously, and with no subsidies and a smaller premium, she’s saving about $400 per month. The only drawback, she says, is the smaller network.
“So far, I’m happy with the result,” Peters says. “The process of going through it with Jason was very enlightening and very helpful.”
When asked why he chose to start the site and offer free seminars, Samel said he considers himself a social activist who believes in attempting to educate society as a whole. Doing this, he says, will give him “the satisfaction of educating people in a time when people are “sadly uneducated.”
Ever since the law came out, Samel says he has been “entrenched” in learning about it. “We were always on tippy toes wondering what was going to change next,” he says. He endured two separate licensing classes, but he says classes were not enough to learn the ins and out of the law. He’s spent many months building relationships with contacts at NY State and at other insurance companies to become aware of any new changes.
The deadline for signing up for health insurance is March 31.
“We’ve been making sure we’re on top of every last detail,” he says. “We just want to clear things up, get people’s heads straight.”
“A lot of people, I think, are railing against the Affordable Care Act, probably because they don’t understand it,” says Peters. “I’d recommend anyone who is having trouble navigating or unhappy with their results contact Jason, or a state navigator, because it is very confusing.”
For more information, visit the website or call 631-875-2993.
