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SPECIAL REPORT: Obamacare (Part 5)

By Rick Schutt

WSBT-TV

8:20 PM EST, February 11, 2013

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It's officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but we all know it as Obamacare.

It's the most complex law since Medicare.

Some people don't have internet access, don’t understand the complexity of the law and will need help.

Some seniors will need assistance navigating through Medicare.

The poor will need help understanding Medicaid.

And right now, a good amount of people don't know about the individual mandate under which we are living.

That is one of the big gaps in the Affordable Care Act – no plan to educate the public.

It was posted as law in the Federal Register, and we are supposed to figure it out on our own.

St. Joseph Regional Medical Center President and CEO Al Gutierrez says you need to know your options and what it means for you.

"We're going to have to step in and assist the public particularly in some of the needy areas to make them aware of what's now available to them that was never available before. To other consumers who are familiar with the internet, they're going to be able to go to a website, be very selective about their coverage. Think of Expedia when you think of health care information market place in the future. You'll be able to select product based on different tiers, different components and also different participants, and it's up to St. Joseph's and our health systems to be there as a cost effective partner to all those new and emerging insurance products."

Gutierrez says in the near future, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center will be setting up enrollment centers in Plymouth, Mishawaka and South Bend to help with information and aid the public.