None of the Maine Bureau of Insurance’s public information sessions about the Affordable Care Act were scheduled to take place in the Kennebec County area, but people with questions about the new federal law are encouraged to contact or visit the bureau’s office in Gardiner.

Doug Dunbar, spokesman for the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, said the department wanted to locate the sessions in areas farther from the bureau’s office at 76 Northern Ave. in Gardiner.

The sessions are for people with questions about the new federal health insurance exchanges, the proposed plans on the exchanges or any other aspects of the health insurance portions of law, according to a press release from the department.

Two sessions were already held in Portland and Bangor last weekPKoenig 8/16/13 Aug 15/16. The two remaining sessions will be held Aug. 29 in Kirk Hall at Central Maine Community College in Auburn and Aug. 30 in the Allagash Room at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Each 6 p.m. session on the exchanges will be preceded by a 5 p.m. public forum for people wishing to comment on Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s request to discontinue its current plans in the individual market and offer people with those plans the option of selecting one of Anthem’s newly proposed plans.

The bureau will hold a formal hearing on the matter in September.

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