On November 2, Mayor Donna Deegan, City Councilman Michael Boylan, Sunil Joshi, Chief Health Officer for the City of Jacksonville, and Lynn Sherman, Executive Director of Health Programs for the City, launched Get Covered Jax!, a public education campaign to help residents without health insurance get covered.
At that time, approximately 120,000 individuals were uninsured in Duval County. As of the close of the open enrollment period, the number of new enrollees was 40,726, which is a 34% decrease in the number of uninsured individuals.
In the interest of building a healthier Jacksonville for everyone, Deegan and healthcare leaders in City Hall created the Get Covered Jax! campaign to help make enrolling in a private healthcare plan as simple and as painless as possible.
“I am thrilled that Get Covered Jax! was so successful,” said Deegan. “I often say that a confused mind says ‘no,’ and this campaign provided important information for our citizens so they could say ‘yes’ to enrolling in health insurance. I want Jacksonville to be a healthier city because health, both physical and mental, is key to our economic prosperity. And the fact that Get Covered Jax! helped reduce our uninsured rate by 34% is a tremendous first step in helping us get there. I look forward to reducing this rate even further during the next open enrollment period.”
Get Covered Jax! sought to educate citizens about the benefits of having health insurance, eligibility, coverage options, best practices for navigating the health insurance marketplace and resources to help consumers through the process. The administration worked with several faith-based leaders, community healthcare providers and media outlets.
Joshi said, “More people will now have access to preventative health services including yearly physical exams, bloodwork, vaccinations and cancer screening that can help keep people healthy. It is very encouraging to see so many people take advantage of signing up for marketplace insurance. This is just the beginning of our road to being one of the healthiest communities in the country.”
For more information about the campaign, go to coj.net/getcoveredjax. Click here to view the informational flyer. The next general open enrollment period will begin November 1, 2024.