The spectacular failure of Oregon's health care exchange this year means Oregonians will have to re-enroll in the next month to keep their insurance. Enrollment opens Saturday.
But the message the federal government is sending out about enrollment is confusing locally.
"The message that they're going to be sharing is that if people do nothing, they'll be auto-re-enrolled. That's not true for Oregonians, because this is a new enrollment for them," said Tina Edlund of Gov. John Kitzhaber's office. "They need to do something by December 15th. It's really important to make that clear."
Most Americans who enrolled through the federal website, HealthCare.gov, don't have to do anything to keep their insurance.
The Dec. 15 deadline is important in Oregon because if Oregonians re-enroll after that, their health insurance will not be continuous.
Oregon won't be running the cutesy ad campaign that kicked-off Cover Oregon. Instead, it's relying on federal messaging and getting community organizations to reach out to residents.
Copyright 2014 Oregon Public Broadcasting