Promoting Libraries for Affordable Care Act Outreach

Jamie Markus is being honored as an Affordable Care Act Champion of Change.

As the Library Development Manager at the Wyoming State Library, I spend my time creating and coordinating programs that enhance library services offered to our state’s 580,000 residents. The Library Development Office staff manages, promotes, and supports many exciting statewide library projects.

In July 2013, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the American Library Association, and other partner organizations launched an e-health initiative, asking all types of libraries to support educational and outreach efforts surrounding the Health Insurance Marketplace.  The Library Development Office at the Wyoming State Library took the lead in coordinating with potential partners in Wyoming. 

As the project progressed, I realized that libraries would become key partners in the outreach effort due to their status as community centers and trusted sources of information. I met and talked with as many organizations as I could find to discuss how Wyoming’s libraries could help to support the efforts of Healthcare Navigators and those working to inform residents about the Affordable Care Act, the Health Insurance Marketplace, and the HealthCare.gov website.

The Wyoming State Library designed and supplied 15,000 Health Insurance Marketplace handouts to Wyoming libraries, including twenty-three public libraries, seven community college libraries, a tribal college library, and the University of Wyoming libraries. More than 90 library outlets in nearly every major community in the state had the opportunity to provide these handouts to library patrons. 

I participated in an untold number of meetings, teleconferences, webinars, and email exchanges to promote the idea of using library public meeting spaces and public access computers to those groups involved in educational events and insurance sign-up workshops on the Affordable Care Act and Health Insurance Marketplace. I also coordinated the production of two state-wide webinars and two programs at the 2013 Wyoming Library Association Annual Conference, informing library staff about the Affordable Care Act, the Health Insurance Marketplace, our Wyoming partners, and available resources.

The demand for information about the Affordable Care Act was high. I was glad to be able to promote libraries as a safe and trusted place for outreach organizations to put residents in touch with the information they wanted and needed.

Jamie Markus is the Library Development Manager at the Wyoming State Library.