Queens Borough President Melinda Katz will be hosting a health care seminar during which Queens residents can get help signing up for health insurance under Affordable Care Act.

     A group of multi-lingual health care “navigators” will use their laptops to help seminar attendees register for health insurance online. Navigators fluent in Spanish, Chinese and several South Asian languages will be available during the event, which will be held Tuesday, March 11, at 6:00 p.m. in the Auditorium (Room A1-22) of Elmhurst Hospital Center, 79-01 Broadway, Elmhurst.

     Borough President Katz is making a push to register as many people as possible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act before the current open enrollment period ends on March 31.  Anyone who does not sign up for ACA coverage by March 31 will most likely have to wait until mid-November to get another opportunity to sign up for coverage.

    “The March 31 deadline is fast approaching, so the time is now for Queens residents in need of health insurance to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act,” Katz said. “I don’t want anyone to miss out on the Act’s many benefits.”

    Katz is also making a special appeal to Hispanic residents, especially those living near Elmhurst Hospital Center, to attend Tuesday’s seminar and sign up for coverage. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, released today, found that that 15.9 percent of U.S. adults currently do not have health insurance, down from 17.1 percent during the last quarter of 2013. The uninsured rate went down 2.6 percent for African Americans and one percent among non-Hispanic whites, but went down just 0.8 percent for Hispanics.           

     To help address this issue, Spanish-language flyers were distributed to promote the seminar and Spanish-speaking volunteers from the Hispanic Federation were chosen to be among the navigators who will be helping residents sign up insurance during Tuesday’s event.

      New York State residents who have not already done so may sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act by visiting the state’s health care exchange at nystateofhealth.ny.gov.