The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The Colum- bia County Public Health Office and the Columbia County Health System will offer training to anyone interested in becoming an in-person assistor to help local residents sign up for the new Washington Health Insurance Exchange.

Representatives from Washington Health Benefit Exchange will be in Dayton October 22 to provide the one-day training, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Delaney Room at the Dayton Memorial Library. The trainers will return October 29 for certification of trained assistors, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Public Health and CCHS will each have a representative taking the training. The training is also open to the public. Par- ticipants must attend both sessions in order to become certified.

Certified assistors will be able to help local residents sign up for health insurance through the new wahealth- planfinder.org website.

The WHBE representa- tives will also be in Dayton October 23 (at Columbia County Public Health) and October 30 (in the Delany Room) to provide one-on- one assistance to local residents who wish to sign up for benefits through the website. Both sessions will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

According to Columbia County Public Health Ad- ministrator Martha Lanman, the new health plan finder website is part of the Afford- able Care Act, which went into effect October 1. It is available for anyone who currently has no health insurance, or who has private health insurance. It is not required for those who have employer-provided health insurance.

Medicare recipients over 65 or who qualify for Medicare because of a disability, are not eligible for the new health plan exchange. Those whose income is low enough to qualify for Medicaid ben- efits are not eligible for the health plan finder, but can use the website to sign up for Medicaid benefits.

For more information on the training or health benefit exchange assistance, contact the Columbia County Public Health office at 509-382- 2181.