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Healthcare Signup Deadline Soon

Time is running out for anyone who wants to enroll in Obama-care - the marketplace exhange for health insurance. Enrollment for next year began on November lst, and ends on Saturday (12/15).

Unity Point Health-Trinity has nine people helping Quad Cities area residents consider their health care options, according to their manager, Linaka Kain. She says unlike past years, enrollment has been very strong so far this year. 

"I think the insurance companies kind of felt this year that they wanted to become a player on Health Care dot gov and put their options out there."

And that's resulted in some very affordable plans - Kain says some people have been able to choose plans with monthly premiums of just 5 dollars, or even no premium at all. 

"In the past we would always have a lot of people who would say, well let me go home and talk to my significant other, I want to go home and discuss it and pick a plan later. We're not seeing that as much this year. I'd say probably more than 75 % of the people are actually just picking the plan while they're in the office with us as opposed to going home and thinking about it.

Last year, her Certified Application Counselors enrolled more than 2,200 people in the Quad Cities, and with a week to go, this year's enrollments already exceed that number. Unity Point Health enrollments in the Des Moines area so far have quadrupled the previous year.

Appointments are necessary, and usually last about 2 hours. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.