The three Santa Rosa residents registered for Sunday's forum on the Affordable Care Act and then gathered outside in the sun, discussing in Spanish the questions they had.
"The first question is, 'What help is there for people who don't earn much," said Odilon Salgado, 53, sitting on the curb outside Taylor Mountain Elementary School. "For people like me, for farmworkers."
"Another question," added Yolanda Flores of Santa Rosa, "is it obligatory."
"Also," said Flores, 45, "for example, if I go for a routine exam, every two or three years, I pay, say, $30. If we have to pay every month, is it worth it?"
"We don't have children," added Flores's husband, Vicente Peralta, 48 and a landscaper. "So we don't go to the doctor."
Soon the forum, organized by Rep. Mike Thompson's office, started. The audience was spare, perhaps 20 people, and Thompson, D-St. Helena, seemed a bit disappointed.
"I'm sorry that there aren't more people here," he said in his opening remarks.
President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul has ground bumpily into gear since its Oct. 1 launch and the forum took place amid efforts to increase the number of Latinos enrolled through the state-run health insurance exchange, Covered California. At the end of December, Latinos were about 20 percent of the total number of people who had signed up.
That number is much higher in Sonoma County, where Latinos are about 65 percent of Covered California enrollments.
"I think it's so important for everyone to have good health care and health insurance," Thompson said to the small crowd Sunday. "If I have to go door to door and speak to each person individually, it's worth it."
Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, speaking in both Spanish and English, said the great majority of the estimated 70,000 county residents without medical insurance will be able to receive it through the law commonly referred to as Obamacare.
"Through Covered California, 50,000 of our community members will be able to enroll and obtain health insurance," she said.
The panelists zipped through slideshow presentations outlining the process of enrolling and who is eligible. One panel member, Nelly Saldana, an account manager of an insurance brokerage, Vantreo, issued a warning.
"If you seek help from an insurance broker and they try to charge you a fee, that's illegal," Saldana said. "Be careful, be very careful."
From the audience came a few questions, written on notecards that were read by a Thompson aide.
"If I have insurance but my wife is undocumented, can she get insurance?" was one.
No, was the answer. But residency status makes no difference at community health clinics," said Eliot Enriquez, a Covered Califorrnia representative at Redwood Community Health Coalition, which operates in Sonoma, Yolo, Napa and Marin counties.
Also, Saldana noted, anyone, regardless of residency status, can buy health insurance through private brokers.
"Outside Covered California, it doesn't matter," she said. "What matters is money."
Afterward, Salgado, the farmworker, sought information about applying and said he planned to call the number he'd been given.
"We need insurance in the event of sickeness, in the event of an accident," he said. "But Ihave to find out how much it costs."
For Flores, because penalties will eventually apply to those who don't enroll, at least once question was answered.
"It's obligatory," she said, "so it's not a question of do I want it or not."
Her husband went back and forth. "It's cheaper to pay the fine," he said. But then, speaking to Omar Medina, an eligiblity worker with the county's Department of Human Services, he said. "It's better to have insurance?"
Yes, Medina said. "It is."
You can reach Staff Writer
Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.
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