CLEVELAND — Friday is the first day of open enrollment in Ohio's health insurance marketplace, and figuring out which plan is best for you and your family can be confusing.
Kevin Mottram is 67 years old. He needs health insurance, but has difficulty trying to manage all of his options on a computer.
"Don't try to do it yourself because there's a million of them out there," Mottram said, "So just get somebody to help you through the process."
Meredith Bement is the director at North Ridgeville Senior Center and said technological advancements have made enrollment difficult.
"They do require you to have a username and password and do it all through their website, and that can be very challenging for our seniors," Bement said.
Mottram is not alone. The 60 million Americans on Medicare can use this time to make changes to their insurance. Experts say that's sometimes easier said than done.
"Read the fine print. It's challenging for anybody," Bement said. "I have a hard time understanding my health insurance."
Greg Summers works for Metro Health and works with seniors to help them navigate the insurance maze he believes is especially complicated at the federal level.
"Congress has to decide on that so what the President wants, what Congress will give him," Summers said. "You just don't know."
Separate from Medicare, there are other changes to Ohio's Health Insurance Exchange program.
If you're one of the more than 200,000 people in Ohio's marketplace, premiums are going down an average of nearly eight percent. This decrease could save you hundreds of dollars next year.
For more information on the open enrollment period, visit the Ohio State Health Insurance Exchange's website here.
