Kaiser Permanente Bridge Program: Inexpensive Heathcare for Farmers 

By Ain Chiké  

Ain is a Farmer Providers Coordinator at Georgia Organics. She presently leads progress with connecting farmers to Kaiser Bridge Well being Insurance coverage and is the creator and supervisor of the Georgia Organics Apprenticeship Program.

Farming is inherently onerous work and managing threat turns into a each day apply. Farm homeowners who’re a part of the farm’s labor drive can not afford to take days off because of sudden sickness or damage. The time away equates to lack of revenue and elevated medical payments. The identical is true of farm staff. In 2017, Georgia Organics partnered with Kaiser Permanente to carry metro Atlanta space farmers inexpensive healthcare beneath the Kaiser Permanente Bridge Healthcare Program.

The Kaiser Bridge Program provides uninsured, low-income people and households with sponsored high-level medical health insurance. This program helps to “bridge” the hole for agricultural staff who don’t qualify for Medicaid and discover the month-to-month premiums of the Inexpensive Care Act burdensome.   

Because the program’s inception, Georgia Organics has helped over 50 farm homeowners, farm staff, and their certified dependents obtain healthcare. Our farmers have saved hundreds of {dollars} on surprising medical charges, follow-up care, and annual physicals. In some instances, members who would usually ignore a lingering ache, progressive cough, or twisted joint, have been in a position to schedule a go to at a Kaiser Permanente workplace to obtain prime tier medical care. This helped them get again on the farm in good bodily situation and prevented their illnesses from exaggerating.

One in all our Farmer Members, Hanna Brown, a fifth-year farm employee and present a part of the Love is Love farm crew, spoke about an typically missed good thing about being in this system and insured when she said that

“…being part of the Kaiser Bridge Program has enormously improved my peace of thoughts. With as many healthcare issues that would come as a direct results of farm work, understanding that I may simply and affordably obtain healthcare has been an infinite reduction.” 

WHO CAN PARTICIAPTE IN THE PROGRAM? 

Eligible people: 

• Farm homeowners, farmer workers (this consists of undocumented staff), agricultural contractors, those that work in forestry, these in a farm mentorship program, and many others.   

• Dwell or work in Bartow, Butts, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Lamar, Newton, Paulding, Pike, Rockdale, Spalding, or Walton counties of Georgia. 

• Meet annual or month-to-month revenue necessities of this system. 

• Preserve membership with a Georgia Organics or SAAFON all through enrollment.

PROGRAM UPDATES

Previous members and people conversant in this system ought to be conscious that the protection restrict has been expanded past the earlier two-year protection rule.  

WHEN AND HOW TO APPLY

The upcoming open enrollment interval will start in Nov. 2023 and shut in Jan. 2024. Former two-year beneficiaries are inspired to re-apply by means of Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.

When you learn this text after the deadline, re-apply between Nov. 2023 and Jan. 2024 in the course of the open enrollment interval.

New to Kaiser Bridge? E mail gofarmerservices@gmail.com to sign-up for open enrollment updates and study extra about this system for you and your farm workers.

Click on to study extra concerning the Kaiser Bridge Program 

READY TO JOIN OR RENEW YOUR GEORGIA ORGANICS MEMBERSHIP TODAY? Discover the suitable membership degree for you at www.georgiaorganics.org/membership.

To study extra about Georgia Organics go to georgiaorganics.org or observe us on Fb, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube by looking (Georgia Organics).