The Quest for Affordable Healthcare - Part 1

I wanted to share my experience of getting healthcare. Sharing the experience might help me laugh about it. I started writing it all down and realized that one post is just not going to do it any justice. So without further ado, I give you Part 1.

I was really optimistic about the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Having a pre-existing condition, the ACA roll-out meant that I would be able to buy coverage without being told that they wouldn't cover a heart attack, or a back problem. You don't need me to tell you that the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act was a monumental fiasco. That news was all over every media outlet. In spite of the rocky start, they jumped on it to try to fix it. Lots of systems have issues when they're new. And even though this system had issues unmatched in private industry, I thought they had it "mostly" fixed by mid-December. Perhaps I was overly optimistic.

Let's start with October...

Early October: Roll-out day is October 1. I had one friend claim that she successfully enrolled. Encouraging, even though I couldn't get logged in. By this time the news is out that this is going to be a monumental train wreck - and it wasn't just Ted Cruz talking anymore.

Mid October: I tried again. I was able to log in and create an account. It took me hours, but I was able to complete the application. By this time it was late and I was too tired to look at plans. I was certain that I would be able to resume at a later time. In the meantime, I received an email that said I had a message waiting in my marketplace account. I logged back in but wasn't able to find the message anywhere. I decided to try the online chat feature. The person I was chatting with had no idea how to access my message and suggested I call the customer service number. That person also had no idea how to access the message, but between us, we made the assumption based on the "Eligibility Notice" heading that it was probably just an email letting me know that I was indeed eligible to purchase a plan through the marketplace. I asked if I needed to change my notifications from email to snail mail, figuring that if they mailed it to me, at least I'd know for sure what it was. I was assured that this wouldn't be necessary.

Again it was late and I had until December 13th to complete it. I made the erroneous assumption that it would not be a problem.

Will it be a problem? Will Barbara get coverage? Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment...