Libraries and the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Chapters share with each other how they address the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The discussion is sorted alphabetically by state library association (Chapter). For other issues and links to other Chapter resources, visit Chapter Issues. See also What Chapters Are, What ALA Does for Chapters (including links to resources), and The ALA and Chapters Partnership, which are pages of answers and explanations about how the ALA and ALA Chapters partnership works. For additional resources from the American Library Association, see Affordable Care Act.

Chapters share with each other how they address this issue. The discussion is sorted alphabetically by state library association (Chapter).

For other issues and links to other Chapter resources, visit Chapter Issues.

See also The ALA and Chapters Partnership, descriptions about how the ALA and ALA Chapters partnership works and Chapter Answers.

In addition, resources on the Affordable Care Act will be provided by OCLC’s Webjunction at no cost to members and non-members (everyone). IMLS has awarded $286,104 to OCLC to support the effort—learn more about the grant to Webjunction: http://www.oclc.org/en-US/news/releases/2013/201337dublin.html. Additionally, ALA hosted a session at the 2013 Annual ALA Conference titled “Libraries and Health Insurance: Preparing for Oct 1.” The session was recorded and will be available soon. We're sending updates to all of our ALA Washington Office subscribers: http://capwiz.com/ala/mlm/signup/. You can also get Washington Office notifications on this issue at www.districtdispatch.org. Visit the American Library Association’s Affordable Care Act website.

State Chapters

| AL | AK | AZ | AR | CA | CO | CT | DE | DC | FL | GA | HI | ID | IL | IN | IA | KS | KY | LA | ME | MD | MA | MI | MN | MS | MO | MT | NE | NV | NH | NJ | NM | NY | NC | ND | OH | OK | OR | PA | RI | SC | SD | TN | TX | UT | VT | VA | WA | WV | WI | WY | Mountain Plains | Pacific Northwest | New England | Southeastern | Guam | Virgin Islands |

Alabama Library Association

Alaska Library Association

Arizona Library Association

Arkansas Library Association

California Library Association

In California, at the request of the California State Library, Infopeople is taking the lead on disseminating information and offering training to the library community. Because of their efforts, CLA is not stepping in. Frankly, we are glad that Infopeople has taken this on!

Colorado Association of Libraries

Most of the implementation is happening on the library-by-library level. There is State level training being offered as well.

Connecticut Library Association

Delaware Library Association

Delaware is working on this on a state level. We are uniquely positioned for a few reasons (size, type of ACA program, organization efforts with community partners).



Our main website is choose health delaware: http://choosehealthde.com and we have created a libguide for patrons and library staff and are coordinating presentations and informational sessions fir staff and in our libraries fir patrons. Http://guides.lib.de.us/aca

District of Columbia Library Association

Here is what is going on in DC from their Department of Programs and Partnerships:



"As for library / ACA coordination at the state level, as always the district is unique because DCPL serves as both the municipal library and the state library. We are finalizing a partnership with the DC ACA coordinator – DC Health Benefits Exchange (DCHBX) – to act as a key partner in helping residents of the district get the information they need to get enrolled. The partnership will include the following:

  • The central library will serve as a continuous enrollment center for the duration of the open enrollment period, with DCHBX trained assisters on-site to help residents through the enrollment process. We anticipate that this service will be available for all library opening hours.
  • We’ll host “pop-up” enrollment centers at branch libraries throughout the district, focusing on neighborhoods identified by DCHBX as a priority.
  • On October 19, the central library will host a “ribbon-cutting” for the enrollment program, and it’s our intention to expand this to an all-day health fair, with local providers and clinics leading workshops and screenings and sharing information about their services."

Florida Library Association

The Florida Division of Library and Information Services (state library agency) is pushing out information to public libraries with links to federal resources.

Georgia Library Association

Hawaii Library Association

Idaho Library Association

The Idaho Commission for Libraries have been working with Blue Cross to create “Get Covered Idaho” (www.getcoveredidaho.com) a state-wide health insurance literacy initiative. We are providing our libraries with information to answer the basic questions they will be (and have been ) receiving, as well as a variety of free materials to offer to patrons.



We are working with libraries for Idaho Health Insurance Week, September 15-21, where libraries can host workshops and informational programs related to the ACA.

Illinois Library Association

The Illinois Library Association will have a program about the Affordable Care Act at our upcoming conference and the next issue of the ILA Reporter will contain an article or articles on the topic.

Indiana Library Federation

The Indiana Division of Library and Information Services (state library agency) is pushing out information to public libraries with links to federal resources.

Iowa Library Association

Kansas Library Association

Kentucky Library Association

Louisiana Library Association

Maine Library Association

Maryland Library Association

The Maryland State Library is taking the lead with Maryland Health Connections on disseminating information and offering training through webinars, health liaisons and fact sheets.

Massachusetts Library Association

Michigan Library Association

Minnesota Library Association

Mississippi Library Association

Missouri Library Association

Montana Library Association

From the MT State Library's learning portal:

In Montana, the State Library is in contact with the Office of the State Auditor and Commission on Insurance and Securities and the Department of Public Health and Human Services and we are committed to keeping this page updated with Montana-specific information and training opportunities for librarians. The information on this portal will be updated as necessary to provide Montana-centric training for librarians here.

MT Library Association members are keeping up an active dialog about the role of libraries with the ALA and MLA might embark on issues that are more advocacy related. The State Library's training and information services are limited to what our State Librarian deems is necessary for libraries to provide normal reference assistance.

Nebraska Library Association

The Nebraska Library Commission provided an online program on the Affordable Care Act as one of the regular Wednesday - NCompass Live programs. It is now available to view as an archived program - http://nlc.nebraska.gov/NCompassLive/NCArchivelist.asp. We also have individual library communities putting together help sheets with general information and resources - such as one put together at Lincoln City Libraries. We are also encouraging library staff to attend training provided through the local Health Department.

Nevada Library Association

New Hampshire Library Association

New Jersey Library Association

New Mexico Library Association

New York Library Association

New York has a webpage dedicated to providing information: New York's Health Benefit Exhange and Your Library



And has hosted an informational webinar for libraries to provide information on the NY system.



We are also planning to leverage to role of libraries in our 2013-14 advocacy language.

North Carolina Library Association

North Dakota Library Association

Ohio Library Council

In Ohio, the Ohio Library Council and the State Library of Ohio are trying to establish the engagement of the libraries at the state level to gain some consistency in the information they provide. The OLC and SLO are collaborating to provide resources to the public libraries to help customers who use the library to find more information and select coverage through the Affordable Care Act. The State Library has set up a webpage (http://library.ohio.gov/aca) where public library staff can find countless information resources. An important item that the OLC has provided is a disclaimer that libraries can post about the extent to which library staff members can help customers with ACA information and coverage choices.

Oklahoma Library Association

Oregon Library Association

Pennsylvania Library Association

PA is sending out our weekly information sheet which contains a health update every week. This started Aug 17 and will continue. We also have a task force through PaLA in conjunction with Commonwealth Libraries that is working very quickly to provide some solid materials to our libraries so they can act as “Community Connectors” for ACA in their locations.

Rhode Island Library Association

South Carolina Library Association

South Dakota Library Association

Tennessee Library Association

Texas Library Association

In conjunction with the National Library of Medicine, the Texas Library Association is sponsoring a conference program on the ACA and will be offering web links to a myriad of resources to help libraries. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has offered a webinar in which the speaker emphasized the need for disclaimers on display in libraries.

Utah Library Association

Vermont Library Association

Virginia Library Association

Washington Library Association

The Washington Library Association assigned this to the interest group for adult programming librarians. They are working to get information out to all libraries in the state. Regionally libraries are working with the health organizations that are developing collaborative strategies to inform the public.

West Virginia Library Association

Wisconsin Library Association

This link http://pld.dpi.wi.gov/pld_aca is provided by the Public Library Development Team at the State of Wisconsin.

Wyoming Library Association

Regional chapters, Guam, and Virgin Islands

| Mountain Plains | Pacific Northwest | New England | Southeastern |

| Guam | Virgin Islands |

Mountain Plains Library Association (MPLA)

New England Library Association (NELA)

Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA)

Southeastern Library Association (SELA)

Guam Library Association

Virgin Islands Library Association