Health insurance can save your life; Call today for free, unbiased help to get covered

If you need to sign up for health insurance but you've been putting it off; there is free, unbiased help available through the North Carolina Navigator Consortium to help people find their way through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

You can call 1-855-733-3711 from 4 to 7:30 p.m. to talk to an expert who can answer your health care questions - for free!

Heath insurance is complicated, but it's also important for your family. 5 On Your Side spoke to Christa Kimble, who says finding the right coverage was a huge comfort for her.

After immigrating to the U.S. in 1987, Kimble had to make tough choices as a single mom.

"Am I gonna get groceries, or am I gonna pay the health insurance," Kimble recalled.

For a long time, she went without the insurance. She relied on the health department, urgent care and the emergency room; but they were expensive, and Kimble would only go as a last resort.

"On several occasions, I waited till the last minute. It was just ... it was just not good," she told 5 On Your Side.

So in 2013, when open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act started, Kimble suddenly had access to health insurance she could afford. She's had coverage ever since.

"I'm excited. Every year, I can't wait," Kimble Said. "I call the navigator and they give me an appointment and I go in there and enroll for the next year."

Angela Cameron is Kimble's Navigator and the Eastern Regional Director of the NC Navigator Consortium.

"When they realize that the help is there and they can get health insurance for the first time, that makes my heart smile," Cameron said about how rewarding her work has been.

It also made Cameron emotional when telling 5 On Your Side's Keely Arthur about a woman who wasn't insured and couldn't afford the test she needed for a health issue. Cameron helped her get enrolled and the woman got the test.

"She came back and was like 'I have cancer, but I can get a cure for that because I have health insurance,'" Cameron recounted. "That health insurance, it saved her life."

Cameron says sometimes when people don't understand the open enrollment process, they don't want to go through it. But that's where the North Carolina Navigator Consortium can help.