San Francisco, CA – Over 100 people joined Assemblymember Philip Y. Ting (D-San Francisco) last Saturday at the San Francisco County Fair Building for his third community meeting to help San Franciscans learn about the Obamacare healthcare open enrollment period. The event provided translation services to ensure that limited English speakers could participate.
“Obamacare is revolutionizing healthcare and we must be ready for the changes ahead,” said Ting. “I’m committed to giving people the facts so they can get the best coverage possible. My passion is to ensure that language barriers do not marginalize members of our diverse community.” Ting’s town hall educated attendees about their health care options and enabled them to pre-enroll with Covered California – the state’s new marketplace for private healthcare coverage created by the state legislature to implement President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The event featured a panel discussion with representatives from Chinese Community Health Plan, Healthy San Francisco, and AARP. The panelists discussed a health care enrollment services available to Chinese speakers, how Obamacare affects those currently receiving health care through San Francisco’s Department of Health but must obtain health insurance during Obamacare’s open enrollment period, and Medicare changes.
“Many people took their first step in obtaining affordable, quality health care,” added Ting. “We must seize the moment and help each other because this is a life-changing opportunity. We all know someone with no insurance or inadequate care. That is why I am organizing more of these community gatherings in the future.”
Ting is partnering with Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) to organize an Obamacare enrollment event from 10:00am-12:00pm on November 9 at True Hope SF, located at 950 Gilman Avenue.
Obamacare’s open enrollment for health insurance began October 1. Covered California began its operations that same day to help Californians identify and enroll with a health plan by March 31, 2014. Health coverage under this phase of the ACA starts on January 1.