Teaneck event offers help signing up for health insurance under Affordable ...

Jennifer Brown/Special to The Record

TEANECK - With two weeks remaining before the federal government begins penalizing the nation's uninsured, community leaders in Bergen and Passaic counties on Saturday helped residents beat the deadline and get on the right side of the health care law.

More than two dozen individuals and heads of household attended 'Let's Get Covered' in Teaneck High School Student Center to seek information, sign up and/or troubleshoot incomplete applications for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Saturday's program was aimed at minority communities, because they are most likely to be overrepresented in the enrollment gap at the end of the month, said seminar presenter Sheila Thorne.

'The message now is, 'This is the law!' ' Thorne said of her pitch to black and Latino communities, where disparities in rates of coverage and access to care are said to be the nation's highest.

'These populations really need a massive education about how to manage their health and take charge of their health care,' she added. 'You've got to get them in the mode to make a decision. And sometimes it's all about who's doing it.'

The event was a partnership between the township and the Bergen-Passaic chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc., which has twice enlisted Thorne, a multicultural health care marketer affiliated with the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities.

Four certified application counselors, trained to help people enroll in federal- and state-run health care exchanges, met one-on-one with attendees Saturday.

Rudys and Joyce Luciano of Teaneck sought information to enroll their family of six in an affordable health care plan. After relocating from New York City a year ago, the Lucianos lost the health care coverage they had in their old city jobs.

'Either I get affordable insurance or I'll have to change jobs,' said Luciano, a 47-year-old driver.

Joyce Luciano, 37, a business administrator, experienced difficulties accessing the trouble-plagued HealthCare.gov website.

'Online is just confusing - we might get something, but you really don't know,' she said. 'Nothing about the process has been accurate.'

Locksley Taylor, a Teaneck resident who recently emigrated from Jamaica, wanted to know how he might fit into the system. 'I won't make that deadline,' he said. 'But I just want to know what's next for me when I am able to sign up.'

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 80,000 Bergen residents and nearly 70,000 Passaic County residents were uninsured before the health care law took effect.

Councilwoman Lizette Parker, who has headed township efforts to get residents enrolled, stressed the importance of using the resources assembled at Saturday's fair.

'This is our last chance,' Parker said referring to the March 31 deadline for the initial enrollment period. 'It's a well-known fact that healthy residents make for a better and healthier community.

The township is sponsoring another enrollment seminar in the student center of the high school on Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.