very exciting a long anticipated day from our founding in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight we have been committed to the ideal that health care is the right for all people today marks a beginning in making that ideal  worthy i think it's fitting that the governor and county executive have chosen a community health center to kick off open enrollment for medicaid coverage and the exchange state wide community health centers expects to enroll half of all the newly covered medicaid patients coverages here community health centers along with an extensive network of community organizations are committed to making sure the people who need coverage get it our collective goal is to secure coverage for one hundred forty thousand people by two thousand and fifteen with funding from the affordable care act community health centers have hired ninety one additional workers in one hundred eighty rural and urban clinics across the state to make that happen country doctor is part of that effort our health care access team of six and workers was able to serve patients as soon as our doors opened this morning it is especially fitting that this health center is hosting this event we have the highest rate of uninsured patients in the state right here in central seattle fifty three percent of our patients have no insurance we are proud that our state leaders agree that is unacceptable and took action to change it i'm behalf of country doctor community health centers thank you for coming i'd like to introduce you to dr bob crittendon from the governor's office who will introduce two leaders who have been strong supporters of expanding health care coverage and several people who will benefit chance to talk to the governor as well as some of the clients that are here who have actually started their roman process believe  national health care reform is an equally historic breakthrough it was hard won in congress and it is an opportunity that we will not let pass by here in king county we have about one hundred eighty thousand adults who will be newly eligible for free or affordable health insurance one of every six adults in king county as a society we are paying for others getting sick the costs of uncompensated care are already spread throughout the system whenever one person is rushed to be emergency room for a condition that could have been prevented with early attention that's a bill passed on to everyone in increased insurance premiums or taxes the only medical treatment some get is in our jail starting today we're going to change that i have set the admittedly ambitious goal of full enrollment for our uninsured king county residents to reach that goal i have mobilized every county agency that has direct contact with the public we will create an expectation that all will become insured a culture of coverage this is an all hands on deck effort will talk to people wherever we meet them flyers a customer service counters restaurant inspectors sharing information with managers every office and counter and agent regardless of agency should connect you to coverage through our partner organizations we've trained more than five hundred in person assisters fluid in thirty four languages will enroll the uninsured at two hundred events at hundreds of public places like libraries and community centers some eighty thousand people will be newly qualified for medicaid another one hundred thousand for reduced premiums on forty different health plans available here in king county through the state health exchange instead of paying a thousand dollars or more a month for insurance you like qualify depending upon your means for a premium of three hundred dollars more on the scale of an auto payment or if you're worse off perhaps one hundred dollars the price of your cell phone bill or perhaps even less what reform means is that if you suffer a catastrophic illness or injury and have no coverage you are not facing personal bankruptcy our region is one built on innovators and entrepreneurs and what reform means is that if you have a good idea you can strike out on your own and start a business you are able to leave your nine to five job in pursue that dream and you don't have to worry about losing your health insurance and suffering from that last security so we're here to call on everyone without insurance to please sign up get out there look the security of a health care policy for you and your family is now within your reach and people have access to affordable health care they can lead healthier and more productive lives and that's good for them it's good for business it's good for all of us thank you long story he can tell you that he's going to keep it short but he's had to you know say at least and has and needs to have insurance if he's going to be healthy in the long run charles here i'll let you talk about your own story in a second ok ok great hello my name is heather and i'm thirty three years old i'm a full time student at bellevue college a member of the honor society and i'm working on becoming a nurse i went back to school after i'd been laid off three times in five years during that time i floss my insurance and it's led me having to go through a six month journey through charity care in order to get a biopsy well it wasn't cancer it was extremely frustrating and exhausting and stressful i really need insurance because i do have several health conditions need to be taken care of hypertension eczema allergies that can cause severe asthma attacks sometimes the best treatments for these are not the medications that are affordable and i had to skip medicaid funds in order to pay my rent lost my health care which and my teenager lost her health care so today i'm here on behalf well to engage in much gratitude for having options for affordable health care an independent business owner in white center and this health care reform means that i am potentially not one step away from crisis anymore i had to fight to keep home from foreclosure you know the economic downturn has affected my business and my livelihood so this particular this this health care reform gives me an opportunity to provide health care for myself but for my teenager and in these formative years i mean we all know how important it is to be able to take our kids to get adequate health care so i'd like to thank you for this opportunity to sign up for health care and i found out today i actually qualify for free health care which was a surprise to me i thought i would have to pay something so i think this is an opportunity for a lot of people who have struggled with going to the doctor finding you know getting to not being able to afford health care at all this is an opportunity for us to either pay a low cost for health care or provide free health care for those who need it so i'd like to thank our governor and  executives for pushing this forward in providing that opportunity to everyone and we're sort of leading the nation here today thanks  hell i'm a state senator ed murray and i'm currently a candidate for the mayor of seattle and it is just an incredible privilege to be on m r t i it is an opportunity for politicians like myself and community leaders  everyday people to express their views and learning new information about different cultures it certainly enriches our media world so that we just don't have you know the stations that we see on t cable but we have a variety of ways of learning information about our very very diversity so my thanks to m m r t i for for being pioneers in this very important work thank you  my name is been there and of mr benjamin i am blessed to be standing here today because i had two open heart surgeries in my life before at age twenty one due to undeveloped i never had health insurance through my work but i had it through family memories and a long term girlfriend for x amount of years as of three years ago me and my long term drove friends had to split up and i lost my health care insurance it was the worst recession and my work as a laborer driver i couldn't afford it on my own so i thought i'd be ok but last february to be exact february second i got a terrible headache and ended up in harvey where i was diagnosed with having a brain is on top of that i discovered that my aortic valve was not functioning it was leaking now and i may have to have another open heart surgery i felt like i got hit by a bolt of lightning that was real hard on me and my family at the time harvey had wrote off the costs due to charity care i can't be denied coverage because of my existing condition i got a role today and found out that the care will be free for me which is a blessing and i am also grateful and relieved because i have to stay on top of a heart condition so now i want to thank the governor king county executive and obama for obamacare thank you and love to hear the searching for some insurance right now at about a year and a half i had my second hip replacement in two thousand and eleven and i lost my insurance that have always had this last year and a half i've been on the phone calling and beg and i've been trying to find some teller supplement insurance and everywhere i went i have been told that you're too y it was even care about my medical condition it's just that i was in that age of sixty five to retire but i have a medical condition in between that time i was diagnosed with high blood pressure am a diabetic repair both of my hips and down to the last two years and it has been really a struggle just to be able to manage i can go any day i have no insurance refuse sometimes to come up to see my doctor carolyn dollars because i didn't have the money to pay because i refused to go and buy my medicine because i didn't have the money i wanted something to eat or something else i needed to take care in my household so there's times i have went through what's certain medications that are the they help me  things that i told the lady that i talked to about with balm of care i want to be the first on the second one in line and i was here early this morning at about quarter denies that i had to sign up because i don't know they could have tomorrow matter of fact it happened two weeks ago i came for just the standard set up and they were grossly rough the door to the hospital my heart was be radical and so they didn't know i governor this is a green heat for the state of washington i'm just here to say this doesn't matter what kind of shenanigans there are back in washington d c washington state's moving forward on health care we are open for business for health care for the people washington state is a leader in this country to implement this law in the most efficient way as possible and you just heard the stories of what this is all about this isn't some ideological discussion this is about real people real hard working people who have real difficulties are now going to have a great shot moving forward when i listen to how their very own band charles makes me understand what this struggle but what this is going to mean is life itself for people across the state of washington it's going to mean that starting today we're going to help prevent suffering prevent disability and premature death and people that should be with their families and should be able to starting today nearly one million people in our state will have access to care and have choices that they can make choices that they make for themselves and what meets their particular family circumstances and that's important this isn't something anybody's being told what to do today about one million washingtonians have a choice to figure out what the best solution for them is in they'll be able to stand up for expanded medicaid the been talked about their kids for washington apple health and to go on the exchange to get a coverage that meets their circumstances and starting today our state is going to save an estimated two hundred eighty million dollars save two hundred eighty million dollars in taxpayer funds and create an estimated ten thousand new jobs associated with expanded health care in our state this is a clear economical winner in the state of washington in this one of the reasons in our state that we have braces on a bipartisan basis isn't it a great thing that our city the real washington adopted a bipartisan solution while they're squabbling back in washington d c republicans and democrats both got behind this bill in the state of washington because it saved us money and health lives at the same time i know two washingtonians are alike health care choices should reflect that people don't want a one size fits all program they want something that puts their feelers thanks to the work of our state insurance commissioner white chrysler and the health benefits exchange people in washington i'm happy to say can choose from a full forty six plans from eight separate carriers we've got a good choice for the state of washington and i want to think richard oh needs to come and others for working diligently to make opportunities to love charles get up early to have these choices this morning i you should an executive order directing all state agencies to look for creative and cost effective ways to spread the word about coverage that is now  reform and that work is already underway here's a couple of examples of what we're doing to get the word out first start apartment of license e mails about six hundred thousand vehicle registration reminders every month they're working with washington health plan finder to search slips to make sure people know about this option second our employment security department is working to get information about the washington health plan finder to people who file unemployment in the state of washington this is really important because we know when people lose their jobs they typically lose their health care and we want to make sure that their families don't fall into that black abyss of having no insurance forty five percent of our residents who are unemployed are also uninsured and these are just a couple of examples of our ongoing efforts to get the word out but we want to ask everybody here in the room we need to share our stories and the access available in this plan for people across the state of washington don't be afraid use your e mail or facebook or anything else to share the stories of what is available to people all across the state of washington so today launches a six month all hands on deck program to make sure people know about access this is just did a wide we've been at this now just for a few hours we've got a long ways to go and a lot of opportunity for people to come up and sign up and i'm looking forward to doing that so thanks for being here this goal make sure everybody's got insurance in the state of washington  up questions here there is nothing that i can foresee that would slow down the state of washington from progress there are two things that i make stream really confiden in number one those who for decades have been resisting efforts to get insurance for people in our country are going to lose they're going to fail obamacare is going to move forward the land for three years we've elected a president with over five million votes the supreme court has ruled that it is the law of the land it will move forward interestingly enough in a certain irony at the republican party that shut down the is continuing it's a certain irony so we are ready it will willing to get people signed up we have people signed up now and that will continue and i want to note that you know this is been about a four hour thing in our in our state but we've got months to work on this people are going to have a chance to get signed up i'm very very confident of that there's a question back and know i'm here with some great kids today from the east african community but it's open to the whole community to learn new skills video production broadcasting and just meet great people come on down t october twelfth at emmel downs barbara the purpose of this event is to raise funds to support vital social cultural cultural programs which the community center provides to over ten thousand people that will include great ethiopian food entertainment fashion show live action and a chance to experience a rich heritage and prominent acclaimed ethiopian hospitality who are highly encourage you to attend this is torek event and support our programs for additional information or to purchase tickets you can call the ethiopian community center at two zero six three two five zero three zero four or go to our website at w w w e c c had all that org again that website is w w w e c seattle that or would do you have to reach out to those who are and why and short we are calling on all county employees not just our health department but everyone who interacts with the public to reach out to people when they receive their new license tabs when they come in for a building permit anything they do with the county we want those county employees to ask do you have health insurance would you like to sign up here we can help you we also have partnered with a couple dozen organizations across the county to do the same thing and then we've trained five hundred people to be personal assistants to be seen to directly assist people in signing up those people speak thirty four different languages and we're going to have hundreds of events two hundred events across the county so that we reach out to folks who sometimes aren't included in the conversation and make sure that they know that health insurance is here for them but those who are not really if the leader with the culture and don't really speak the language we have very specific plans to reach out to the ethnic organizations and individual immigrants to make sure that we're reaching them where they are in the language they speak and so we are very conscious of the fact that not everyone is turned into the mainstream media and not everyone gets their news through traditional sources and so we've deployed all the resources of the county to make sure that we reach all those one hundred eighty