I must confess that blogging about healthcare issues (and occasionally other things) can be fun. But nothing beats having the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services blogging about something good your own organization is doing. This past Tuesday (in between snowstorms) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Jersey City and met with Mayor Steve Fulop and a Navy veteran named Hilda De’Mello, who NJHA recently hired and trained as a certified application counselor to assist people in enrolling for health insurance coverage. NJHA hired a total of 25 veterans for this important work in a program made possible through a one-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Jersey Health Initiatives. It’s a great partnership. We’ve been able to hire 25 people who have already served their country, to serve it yet again in a different capacity – enrolling people in ObamaCare. 

You can read HHS’ post here. We thank Secretary Sebelius and her team for blogging about Hilda and our efforts to directly enroll people through the Health Insurance Marketplace. One thing the blog didn’t include was that Hilda was surprised to be called up to speak to reporters and others who had gathered for the event. But you’d never know it – she was composed, articulate and did a great job. (Go Navy!) Thanks Hilda, and thank you to Secretary Sebelius for sharing our program with readers across the nation. Thanks also to Mayor Fulop for his efforts to have multilingual college students reach out to the diverse population of Jersey City to urge them to obtain enrollment.