A Rocky Start for ‘Obamacare’ Rollout in Washington

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The phone rang steadily Tuesday as trained staff at Valley View’s Chehalis Health Center fielded calls, switching fluently between English and Spanish, to assist the public with questions about the delays in rolling out the state’s new online insurance marketplace.

Despite state officials taking the highly-anticipated Washington Healthplanfinder website offline, shortly after it went live Tuesday morning, workers at the Twin Cities’ in-person assistance locations did what they could to clear public confusion.

Four Lewis County organizations, including Valley View, had prepared to start in-person assistance with enrollment in insurance plans offered through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange Tuesday. But without the state’s website online, the in-person assistants were advising people to call before coming in for scheduled appointments. Those that did show up received paper applications to provide information that could later be entered into the system.

Valley View Marketing Director Linda Tomasheck said her staff had 34 appointments scheduled Tuesday. About half of those people showed up and filled out the paper applications, she said.

“People are responding well to it. They’re very understanding,” said Sandy Freeman, an in-person assistant at Valley View. “Anytime you haven’t been able to test drive a system and it’s new, there’s always problems.”

Still, Freeman said, most people she talked to have been curious about the new options and excited to enroll. Freeman said the negativity surrounding the implementation of health care reform will subside once people have more information.

“There’s been hype of the negative side but they don’t know because nobody’s been able to get on the site,” she said. “Until you get on there and see where you stand, it’s speculation.”

After training on the website and the complex new law, all four members of the Valley View assistance team said they believe health care reform will prove a positive change for the public.

“They’re trying to provide medicine for people who can’t afford it,” said Edson Gonzalez, a bilingual Valley View assistant. “It’s unknown, so people just fear what they don’t know,”



The Valley View team — along with staff from Providence Centralia Hospital, Planned Parenthood’s Centralia Clinic and Lewis-Mason-Thurston Area Agency on Aging in Chehalis — received training to walk people through the enrollment process but will not offer opinions on which coverage to choose.

Kelly Kikuchi, the financial counseling manager at Providence Centralia Hospital, said her team is advising patients to call the 1-855-WA-FINDER call center while the website remains down.

Once the state has the website up, Kikuchi said, people should first try to enrolling online. Those who have trouble, she said, should call one of the in-person assistance locations to make an appointment.

Providence Centralia has a telephone translation service and a system similar to Skype to offer assistance in hundreds of different languages.

Kikuchi said though enrollment continues through March, people should try to sign-up before Dec. 23 so they don’t have a lapse in coverage, which begins Jan. 1.

Those who choose not to enroll in coverage for 2014 will pay a penalty when filing their taxes in early 2015.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report