HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – With enrollment scheduled to begin Tuesday in Pennsylvania’s federally run health insurance exchange, advocates are ramping up efforts to spread the word and teach consumers how to shop in the online marketplaces that are a key element of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

Among those engaging in the effort are advocacy organizations that support the law, health care professionals and not-for-profit agencies that routinely help the poor get public assistance. Education campaigns are focused on going door-to-door canvassing in high poverty areas, setting up offices in community health centers and holding question-and-answer sessions at public libraries and elsewhere.

Their work will be that much more prominent since Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration has remained on the sidelines during the process even as other governors take charge of the enrollment effort. The Corbett administration spent virtually nothing to market it and received nothing from the federal government to market it, either, in contrast to other states that have embraced it.

Many still people don’t know about it, actual insurance coverage won’t take effect until Jan. 1 and the first enrollment period will last until March 31. So many who plan to assist people in getting coverage – such as 50 organizations that run 250 federally qualified community health centers in 48 counties – don’t necessarily expect the gates to come crashing down immediately.
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