For years now N&R staffer Janice Carmac has written movingly about the challenges of rearing her diabetic daughter Zoe. Needless to say obtaining health insurance for Zoe has been a challenge with her preexisting condition. So Carmac attempted to apply for health insurance at HealthCare.gov. Guess what —-it didn’t go well:
After trying for a month to get health insurance for my family of four at the HealthCare.gov website – and filling out three faulty online applications — I gave up.
….My husband and I waited until mid-November to even look at HealthCare.gov.
The website was still riddled with problems at that time, and it took me about three hours to fill out the online application.
When I called to check on it, I learned it had been sent to Medicaid.
It was also missing Social Security numbers, and the birth dates were incorrect.
The representative whom I spoke with on the phone said she could not help but would forward my concerns to the Advanced Resolution Center.
She said to expect a call back in two to five business days.
I called HealthCare.gov after Thanksgiving. No one from the Advanced Resolution Center ever called me, and the HealthCare.gov representative told me that the software had been updated and that I could now delete the first application and start over.
And over. And over. The end of the story? For now, Carmac will keep existing health insurance for herself, her husband and their other child. As for Zoe? A Gold plan purchased via the BCBS website “in about 10 minutes with no errors or mishaps.”
