Obamacare Day One: A Tale Of Two States

By Jenny Gold and Sarah Varney, NPR

In a call center in Rancho Cordova, Calif., on Tuesday, all the workers wore the same T-shirt: “Keep Calm And Go Live.”

Onita Sanders (right), a certified application counselor at the Southeastern Virginia Health System, helps Virginia resident Brenda Harrell with health coverage options at Enrollfest in Hampton, Va., on Tuesday.

They were ready and waiting to take calls from consumers who could buy health insurance on California’s new insurance marketplace for the first time. So the T-shirts urged calm, but the mood was ecstatic and emotional among the architects and key backers who gathered to flip the switch on the Golden State’s exchange.

Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California , the state’s exchange, addressed a cheering crowd in this Sacramento suburb and drew a stark contrast to the grinding politics of Washington, D.C., that shuttered much of the federal government.

“While Washington is talking about shutdown, we’re talking about startup,” said Lee, as he declared an end to the era of a punishing individual insurance market.

“Gone are the days of invasive questions when you apply for insurance about your allergies, your asthma, your diabetes, your cancer. Gone,” said Lee. “You’re never going to be asked that again. Gone are rates based on your answers to those questions.”

On The East Coast

While the mood was equally buoyant at a Hampton, Va., rally, the circumstances for people wanting insurance in the state couldn’t have been more different. At Enrollfest, one of the few Affordable Care Act events in Virginia, organizer Gaylene Kanoyton was quick to point out that “the state is not providing any resources. So, we just have to go ahead and move on. It is a grass-roots effort. It is up to all of us as citizens to come together.”

Kanoyton managed to get a dozen local agencies, health centers and advocacy groups to set up tables at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in the southeastern Virginia city. She advertised the event in churches, community centers and on the radio, and says that some 400 people showed up.

Read the full story by Jenny Gold and Sarah Varney from NPR.