Grantee Name
Empire Justice Center
Funding Area
Expanding Health Care Coverage
Publication Date
October 2017
Grant Amount
2013 ($220,000) 2014 ($189,112) 2015 ($220,000)
Grant Date:
2013–2016
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORTThe passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 offered a new, game-changing opportunity for NYHealth to have a much larger impact, as more than a million New Yorkers could gain health care coverage.
As the first open enrollment period under the ACA approached in 2013, NYHealth focused on helping as many New Yorkers as possible sign up for health insurance coverage. Though the State took the lead in enrolling people in health insurance on the NY State of Health Marketplace, the State’s official health insurance plan exchange, NYHealth saw additional opportunities for progress. To complement the State’s enrollment strategy, NYHealth awarded a grant to the Empire Justice Center (EJC) to develop and administer the Ambassadors for Coverage program. This program trained community-based organizations throughout the State to provide an on-the-ground presence in communities where they could encourage health insurance enrollment. Separate from the direct enrollment activities of the State’s Navigators and Certified Application Counselors, the Ambassadors focused on raising awareness of health insurance eligibility within hard-to-reach communities and populations, and then referred individuals to organizations where they could receive enrollment assistance.