Covered California Offers Enrollment Assistance At Sacramento Health Insurance Fairs

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Covered California opened its doors up and down the state Saturday in an outreach effort to get more people signed up with the health insurance exchange.

People in Sacramento got a chance to sign up for the new health insurance option in person if they didn't want to do it online.

"No waiting lines, no problems with computers, people are able to sign up today," said Betty Williams, Covered California.

California's new healthcare marketplace Covered California made Grant High School in Sacramento's Del Paso Heights neighborhood home.

"Our community is an underserved community in terms of medical issues and needs," said Councilman Allen Warren.

Families showed up for free dental and doctor screenings, and for help enrolling in one of Covered California's health insurance options.

"I'm here for Covered California. I had difficulty online," said Milisa Evans.

Evans says she hasn't had health insurance in 10 years. So even getting an annual checkup has been hard.

After her visit, she and her family were enrolled.

Covered California released its first enrollment figures Wednesday, showing only a small portion of the state's 5 million uninsured had signed up.

"With some of the snags that we've had in the past 40 days, it's to be expected with something brand new like this; but, I do expect it to smooth out and it to be a humongous turnout," said Williams.

Covered California held health insurance fairs at three other Sacramento locations Saturday as well -- the downtown Sacramento Library, the Florin Road business center, and St. Paul Baptist Church in Oak Park.

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