Obamacare, Four Years Later
Four years ago – on March 23, 2010 – President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. President Obama and his Congressional allies drafted Obamacare as they wanted it, stringing together separate and distinct ideas to change our health care system, and set the timetables for the implementation of the law.
Some may benefit from the law. But when other Americans speak out about their troubles with Obamacare – whether it be difficulty enrolling, higher costs, lesser coverage, a more limited choice of doctors or hospitals, etc. – Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) says of their stories, “all of them are untrue.”
Recently I learned of Tiffany, who lives in Wise County with her husband and two daughters. I have spoken with her husband, and others in my office talked with Tiffany. Tiffany and her husband attempted to sign up for health insurance using the Obamacare website in December 2013. They wanted their family to have coverage when Obamacare took effect on January 1, 2014. However, she was unable to sign up online.
Tiffany went to see a local insurance agent for help, and her agent also was unable to successfully enroll them online.
She and her agent tried calling the Obamacare hotline touted by the President as an alternative method to enroll. After nearly completing her application over the phone, Tiffany appeared to be disconnected from the hotline. When she called back, Tiffany was told the Obamacare computers had crashed, and there was no record of her application.
They tried again a few days later, as the deadline approached. They thought they had succeeded, and wrote a check for their first premium.
In January, however, Tiffany and her family had yet to receive their new health insurance cards or confirmation of coverage. But Tiffany – who suffers from an autoimmune disease and usually takes certain medications to help manage her symptoms – had to visit the doctor, have a mammogram, and undergo blood tests to determine how her treatment is working. She did so, thinking she was covered.
Weeks later, bills for Tiffany’s care were coming in, but her family had yet to receive their insurance cards. When inquiring about their enrollment, her agent was told that Tiffany’s family’s application and check were pending, along with thousands of other applications.
On a Saturday in February, the insurance company called Tiffany and said that their family couldn’t be covered until they submitted payment. When Tiffany called the number provided by the company for payment, she was told that the system wasn’t allowing them to take her money.
Several weeks went by. Their December check still had not cleared the bank, and they had not received their insurance cards. In the meantime, Tiffany reports that her family was having to pay bills from her January treatment.
Convinced that their family was not yet enrolled in Obamacare coverage, Tiffany’s family did not seek additional medical help and did not fill their prescriptions.
They decided to go online and start a brand new application, hoping that this would successfully enroll them. But, surprise – this application also would not submit, so Tiffany saved it and called the hotline once again. The gentleman on the other end of the line tried to submit it, and was unable to do so as well. However, he was able to see her original December application – the one she had been told months prior that they had no record of! Once that application was submitted, the gentleman told her that she would soon receive notice of enrollment instructing her to pay her new premium to ensure coverage beginning April 1.
After receiving that notification, Tiffany promptly went online and on March 5, submitted payment. But the very next day, when looking at their bank account, Tiffany saw that their original December check had cleared and the money taken from their account! Soon after, Tiffany and her family received insurance cards stating the effective date for their policy is April 1. But then they received in the mail more insurance cards – with a different identification number – that stated the effective date was February 1.
Over the hotline, Tiffany cancelled their coverage with the effective date of February 1, and said she wanted their money back. She was then disconnected. When she called back on Monday, March 17, Tiffany was told their first policy had been cancelled and that she would receive a refund, but that could take as long as 30 days.
In short, Tiffany’s saga continues.
America’s Obamacare nightmare saga continues also. Let us hope it ends soon.
As always, if you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office by email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov.
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