Today’s post comes to us from guest bloggers Bob Cohen and Stephen Greenberg of Citizen Action of New York

We’re nearly a month away from the beginning of enrollment in the New York health insurance exchange and we couldn’t be more excited about the potential we have to cover over a million more New Yorkers! The exchange – recently named “NY State of Health”- will be enrolling individuals and small businesses beginning on October 1^st.  HCFANY and other stakeholder groups across the state are teaming up with the Exchange to hold regional events to make sure that as many New Yorkers as possible know about this critical opportunity to get affordable health coverage.

We’re facing a big challenge: there are currently over 2 million New Yorkers without coverage; most can benefit from the plans being offered by NY State of Health (including Medicaid and other public programs) – and they all need to know about it.  In order to reach this goal, the state has hired navigators to assist people with the enrollment process. However, if community groups and other stakeholders – from hospitals to health plans to unions – all do their part to get the word out, we have a much better chance of succeeding!

We encourage everyone to attend the appropriate summit for your region of the state, so we can share our best outreach and enrollment practices and coordinate our efforts. (Navigators are especially encouraged to attend!)

Here is a listing of dates and regions where the summits are being held.

• September 16 – Buffalo: (1pm – 4pm) 1199SEIU, 2421 Main Street, Buffalo NY, 14214.  To register, contact Bill Covington at bill.covington@hepny.org or call (716) 995-3705
• September 16 – Brooklyn/Queens/Staten Island (NYC): (1pm – 4pm) 1199SEIU Training and Employment Funds, 25 Elm Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201.  To register, contact Marcelle Dinall at Marcelle.Dinall@1199funds.org or call (646) 473-8485
• September 18 – Utica/Syracuse: (1pm – 4pm) 1199SEIU Headquarters, 250 South Clinton Street, Syracuse, NY, 13202.  To register, contact Victoria Coit at (315) 706-9548 or Victoria.Coit@1199funds.org
• September 20 – Capital District/Northern NY: (10am – 1pm) SUNY, Milne Hall, Room 200, 135 Western Avenue, Albany, NY.  1199 SEIU, 155 Washington Ave (between Lark and Dove), Albany, NY Click here to register. 
• September 23 – Nassau/Suffolk (Long Island): (10 am – 1 pm) 1199 SEIU Headquarters, 100 Duffy Avenue, Suite 3W, Hicksville, NY, 11801.  To register, contact Luis Valenzuela at Luis.Valenzuela@1199funds.org
• September 23 – Bronx/Manhattan (NYC): (2pm – 5pm) GNYHA, 555 West 57th Street, 15th Floor Conference Center, New York, NY 10019.  To register, contact Karina Prendergast at kprendergast@gnyha.org or call (212) 258-5356.
• September 24 – Rochester: (1pm – 4pm) Memorial Art Gallery (MAG), 500 University Ave, Rochester, NY 14607.  To register, contact Kim Wynn at (585) 613-7662 or kwynn@ccsi.org
• September 25 – Mid-Hudson: (1pm – 4pm) Crowne Plaza, 3 Executive Blvd., Suffern, New York 10901.  To register, contact Marisel Stuck at (914) 372-2251 or Marisel.Stuck@hcheq.org

Edited for updates on 9/6/13