New assisters hired to help people enroll in health insurance through the ...

WDBJ 7

If you want to have health insurance at the start of the New Year, you'll need to sign up for it through the Affordable Care Act within the next week.

Enrollment was anything but easy for hundreds of Virginians last year, but it might be a little less stressful the second time around.

Most of the problems revolved around the online Marketplace.

An overload of people trying to enroll on the website created major backups. The federal government has since made tweaks to fix those problems.

But more help is on the way at a state level.

Governor Terry McAuliffe had some good news to share with the Roanoke Valley on Monday.

'We're moving ahead to get every Virginian who is eligible the access to healthcare that they deserve,' he said.

Federal grant money is now allowing Virginia to hire more people to assist with this process and it seems like it's already paying off.

Thanks to a $9.3 million federal grant, Virginia will now be able to hire what they call in-person assisters to help those people looking to buy health insurance.

'Unfortunately, there just weren't enough Patrick's to help them all and unfortunately the state decided they were not going to participate in this effort,' said McAuliffe. 'Well, it's a new day.'

McAuliffe is talking about federal navigator Patrick Kelly.

Last year, he was the only federal navigator in Roanoke available to walk people, like Kara Joyce, through the ups and downs of the online Marketplace.

'I think like a lot of people I find insurance intimidating and confusing,' said Joyce.

Joyce owns her own hair salon in Roanoke. She says she had no choice but to pay about $300 a month for health insurance.

'I had a private pay plan up until I enrolled in the ACA, but it had become a very difficult burden to bear in terms of the cost and the coverage was very poor.'

But after receiving some guidance from Kelly, she now pays about $40 a month.

Joyce says having help from the experts has given her peace of mind.

'It's a big relief,' she said. 'It's a big relief.'

Virginia will now employ about 100 assisters, like Kelly, across the Commonwealth.

Four of those new hires will be in Roanoke.

McAuliffe says the online Marketplace continues to see increasing numbers of people who can log on and successfully enroll in health insurance.

People must enroll by Dec. 15 if they want coverage on Jan. 1, 2015. If not, they will have until Feb. 15, 2015 to enroll in order to have health insurance for the remainder of the year.