Mission
NC Get Covered is a statewide, non-partisan initiative that convenes and educates diverse organizations interested in connecting North Carolinians to health coverage. Our coalition partners include community-based organizations, enrollment assisters, health insurance carriers, agents and brokers, health care providers, hospitals, faith organizations, community health centers and more.
If you wish to join us in this important effort to help North Carolinians get covered and stay covered, click here.
Staff
Megan Bolejack, NC Get Covered Coordinator
Email: mbolejack@caresharehealth.org
Phone: 919-861-8360
Advisory Board
NC Get Covered’s Advisory Board meets on a monthly basis and is charged with:
- Ensuring NC Get Covered fulfills its purpose to convene and educate diverse organizations interested in connecting North Carolinians to health coverage.
- Ensuring NC Get Covered is responsive to the needs of coalition member organizations, thus helping to ensure the successful implementation of the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace.
- Ensuring the process by which the above activities occur is participatory, transparent, inclusive and consensus-oriented.
Current Advisory Board members include:
- Lara Antonenko, Market Manager, Individual and Family Plans, Cigna
- Jeff Bontekoe, Regional Sales Director, Bright Health
- Sherie Bryan, Insurance Agent/Broker, Health Plans Raleigh
- Jeremy Gillespie, Supervisor, Navigator Support, Centene’s Ambetter
- Jennifer Grady, Health Policy Office, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC
- Sherry Hay, Director of Community Health Initiatives, UNC Department of Family Medicine
- Jason McKito, NC Broker Manager, Bright Health
- April Morgan, Outreach and Enrollment Coordinator, NC Community Health Center Association
- Alex Noriega, Outreach and Enrollment Coordinator, High Country Community Health Center
- Jan Plummer, Health Care Navigator Coordinator, Mountain Projects, Inc.
- Nicholas Riggs, Navigator Project Assistant Director, Legal Aid of NC
- Tammie Solomon, Senior Consumer Analyst, Health Insurance Smart NC, NC Department of Insurance
- Neissly Tapia, ACA Outreach Worker, NC Farmworkers Project
- Julieanne Taylor, Attorney/Health Insurance Navigator, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy
- Mark Van Arnam, Navigator Project Director, Legal Aid of NC
- Trish Vandersea, Director of Population Health Initiatives, NC Healthcare Association
- Walker Wilson, Chief Policy Officer, NC DHHS Secretary’s Office
Background
In February 2013, a group of 40 organizations met to discuss North Carolina’s participation in the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace, as our state opted not to create its own health benefit exchange under the Affordable Care Act.
Within six months, this group of 40 organizations grew to nearly 100 and became known as the “Big Tent.” Big Tent meetings were held on a biweekly basis and provided a forum for concerned organizations and advocates to interact with each other and discuss the implementation of ACA policies, regulations and programs in North Carolina.
In April 2013, federal funding became available to community groups that wanted to engage in ACA work. Select members of the Big Tent coalesced to become the North Carolina Navigator Consortium and received $1.9 million to assist uninsured North Carolinians with enrolling in the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace. This award was the fourth highest in the country.
In 2014, with generous support from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the Big Tent was able to create a more formal infrastructure, called NC Get Covered, and hire full-time staff. Care Share Health Alliance, a non-profit organization that works with state and local partners to improve underserved populations’ access to care and overall health, serves as NC Get Covered’s administrative home. To learn more about Care Share, click here.
