Unemployed can still get health insurance benefits

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- Although open enrollment for healthcare has ended, people who have been recently furloughed or laid off because of Coronavirus can still apply for benefits. United Health Services offers free consultation on what plans someone can enroll in. 

"So right now, where people have potentially lost jobs, or maybe aren’t working as much, who knows? Everybody’s in limbo right now," said Lashan Rininger, a certified navigator for United Health Services.

Rininger says her office has not seen a lot of people asking for assistance even though the unemployment rate continues to rise. "They don’t know that there are advocates, there are navigators like myself, there are people out there in the community that are willing to enroll them, assist them, educate them, and do it in the most convenient way possible for them, so yeah I think a lot of it is that lack of knowledge of resources in the community," said Rininger.

United Health Services serves St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, Starke, and Pulaski counties. They specialize in assisting families and children.

"Our service is free. It’s unbiased, we are here to serve everybody," said Rininger. "We look at everything before we give you your choices."

For more information or to schedule a consultation. click here.