We will have plenty more to say about the big picture, but one more time I want to hear how the Affordable Care Act is working for you. Have you tried to sign up through an exchange? Let us know how it went and whether like John Boehner you left your exchange rep on hold for 35 minutes so you could complain about the website on twitter. Nothing cuts through BS like a representative sample of actual experiences.
Also, open thread.
RaflW
I’ve shopped MNSure.org. It still has problems, but I’ve created an account and been able to view all the plan options.
In the end, I’m about 95% certain I’ll select a non-exchange product from Blue Cross. It’s open access and $95/month less than my current (discontinued 12/31/13) plan with another MN insurer.
I’ve been self-paying an individual plan for the past 11 years while working various part-time jobs, many of which I’ve loved but haven’t had insurance.
The main takeaway: I’d not be shopping w/o ACA. I have some pretty typical health concerns for an almost 48 year old male. Watching my partner shop for a plan three years ago was terrifying.
Guaranteed issue makes the shopping all about what coverage style and benefits I want, not about who will take me. Phew!
Soonergrunt
I was able to get through the whole exchange in about an hour and half using my Android phone. I got all the way up to selecting plans, but since I have employer-provided health insurance that meets PPACA requirements that I am very happy with, I didn’t need to purchase a plan.
the Reverend boy
I live in Florida. Two weeks after the website went live I was able to get to the point where I knew what my subsidy would be and what insurance companies were participating in the exchange in my area (the Florida Keys). Since then I haven’t been able to go any further and as of today, every time I try to log in, when I enter my userid and password, the login basically refreshes. However, I have been able to pick a plan that I can afford and offers great coverage. I have also directed friends and family, both in the area and outside, to the Kaiser Family Foundations subsidy calculator as well as to which companies are offering plans in compliance with the ACA and eligible for subsidies. Our plans are picked out, we have an idea of what it will cost us, we just need the website to work.
dontsurf
I have been successful twice, with very minor issues of having to re-enter information.
1. I helped my girlfriend’s dad in Illinois go through the Medicaid expansion setup. Very quick and easy. I did this a couple of weeks ago.
2. I helped my girlfriend’s aunt in Illinois go through the full healthcare.gov experience and successfully get insurance. We had to enter some information a couple of times to get the website to take it, but they were very minor hiccups. I just did this one about 4 days ago.
Poopyman
Using the Maryland Health Connection ™ I was able to sign up and have my ID verified with no problem. The system doesn’t seem to recognize my Family Practitioner though, so I’ve only been able to get estimates for Out of Network plans so far. I know he’s in there, though, so I’ll have to figure it out or phone them as my next step.
The estimates are all roughly comparable to my current subsidized COBRA payments, and we do not qualify for any ACA subsidies.
Gene108
Does anyone know why Obama sold us and our Middle East allies – Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc – out to Iran’s imperial ambitions by lifting sanctions and allowing Iran to keep their nuclear stockpile?
Or am I just paying too much attention to the MSM’s narrative de jour?
Gin & Tonic
@Gene108: B).
Tripod
@the Reverend boy:
I’ve seen a bunch of posters over at the GOS claim you just need to create a new account from scratch. YMMV.
My employer plan didn’t change much, other than my kids can stay on it. I was looking forward to becoming a societal moocher. THANKS OBAMA
brendancalling
I’ve called my “navigator” twice and have yet to receive a callback. Also, i got an important message from HC.gov, but couldn’t open it. When I followed the live advisor’s suggestion, it deleted the message.
So there’s that, from PA.
Lee
@the Reverend boy:
That sounds like there is something wrong with the password you are entering and the website is not letting you know.
You might try resetting your password and see if that helps.
jharp
Not yet enrolled but have spoken with Anthem Blue Cross who will be my next insurer through the exchanges. (Federal/Indiana)
My premiums will be $5,400 less and my daughter’s pre existing condition will be covered for the first time.
Have not yet delved into the other details.
Mike E
I used “Sherpa” to view my options in NC and the subsidy I’ll get at my current/projected income level (2 p/t jobs), and, no surprise, bcbs is the only plan. Gold for me (50yo) starts at $150, so I will sign up in Dec using either the web or the phone. My only wrinkle will be if one of my employers decides to hire me f/t between now and then.
jharp
@Gene108:
“Does anyone know why Obama sold us and our Middle East allies – Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc – out to Iran’s imperial ambitions by lifting sanctions and allowing Iran to keep their nuclear stockpile?”
Yes. He did it because he hates America.
Is that the answer you were looking for? Douche bag.
Baud
@jharp:
You should ask for a new snark meter for Christmas.
srv
@Gene108: They theory is that realists (Biden, et al) had enough with the prog-neocons, or the Iranians are paying better now. Also, Gen. Dempsey said he’d have to put troops on the street begging for money if we wanted sequestration and a war at the same time.
dr. luba
When the exchange first opened, I couldn’t get through. A few days later, I was able to create an ID/register, but that was all. A bit later, I read that you could bypass the glitches by using private browsing, and I did so with Chrome. (Safari works too, in that mode, but some of the buttons don’t display properly). I’ve had no acces issues since.
I am now able to log on and explore my options in detail. My only waits now are when dealing with my insurance company; I get put on lots and lots of holds. I’ve been calling them to find out what my current benefits are (I’ve only used a few outpatient services since I’ve had this coverage over the past 15 years, and picked it up a conversionof a COBRA policy, so never had to explore the details) so I can better compare them to the plan I am looking at.
I haven’t signed on to anything yet, but only because I am a procrastinator. I will do so this week–the platinum plan. Same HMO (I want to stay with my PCP of 20 years) and about the same level of service. And pretty much the same cost; the premium is about the same*, the OOP is higher, but I will have prescription coverage and one pair of eyeglasses per year included. So, for me, who is too well paid for subsidies, it’s probably a wash……..and an education. I now acutally know what my coverage is, and what deductibles and OOP are. (*Note: based on past performance, the premium wuold have gone up about 50 dollars this year, and maybe more, so there is a not insginificant savings there, too).
And an off topic complaint: asthma rescue inhalers. The propellant was changed, by law, a year or two ago. Safer for the ozone. So all the pharmaceutical companies had to create new delivery systems, and were given patents. Result–there are now NO GENERIC rescue inhalers. NONE. They used to cost a few bucks each (3 to 5). Now you’re lucky to find one for $50. Most are more like 60-100 bucks.
But the good news? ” Some or all forms of Proair HFA may become available as generic albuterol after September 2023, depending on FDA approval and patent expiration.” I’m sure all the asthmatics whose budgets have been blown to hell are grateful.
I stocked up in India last spring (3 dollars each with HFA), and luckilly for me, rarely use them. I feel sorry for asthmatics who actually need them on regular basis. I wonder how much they cost in Canada?
Chris
@jharp:
I could be wrong but I think your snarkometer needs calibration…
Chris
I got halfway through the process a week or two ago – all my information loaded, but when it came to actually shopping around for a plan, I’d click on the “next” button and nothing would happen (dude I got chatting with them didn’t know much either). Trying again later this afternoon, will come back here and post how it goes.
Frankensteinbeck
I get my insurance through a family member. It took me about an hour – most of that finding, scanning, and uploading a receipt from my publisher – to get through the qualifications part of the KY website. All of the options, even the platinums, radically dropped my premium before subsidies – but the family member wanted me to stay on the current plan because my current doctor isn’t on the best plans offered.
dr. luba
@the Reverend boy: Try private browsing (aka porn mode). I read about this on a right wing site a while back, and it does work, at least for me.
Geoduck
I signed up with the Washington State system without any problems. But we only elect Democrats to statewide office anymore, and so they made an effort from the start to accept the federal money and do it right. (Now if we can just get rid of enough GOPers in the legislature so that we can deal with our other serious problems…)
Tone in DC
LULz.
Outrage (or is it poutrage?) on a permanent footing, for g00pers and firebaggers.
Cacti
I can tell from the Newsmax links that Obama’s deal with Iran is a good thing on balance because of all the people who are against it:
AIPAC stooges like Chuck Schumer hate it.
Neocon lunatics like John Bolton hate it.
Israeli war mongers like Bibi hate it.
Anti-muslim bigots like Alan Dershowitz hate it.
Have Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld expressed their opposition yet?
cmorenc
I haven’t checked because my health insurance is through my wife’s medical practice. Which doesn’t mean it’s all that great (BCBS / 5K per person annual deductible) but it does mean that I’m ineligible to purchase insurance through the exchanges. I’m not in control of choosing which plan they offer either, because that’s a joint decision among wife’s 4 other partners and their practice manager. The more critical matter in my case is that within the next year, I become eligible for medicare, and have to look into the particulars of signing up for that and to what extent I need any supplemental insurance. I probably won’t be eligible for subsidies either.
Violet
@dr. luba: Was going to suggest visiting the phar ma cy to look for your medication if you have the opportunity to go to another country, but it looks like you did that already.
A family member ran out of Flo nase when we were in the UK. Checked at the local Boot’s phar ma cy and it turns out it’s not only available over the counter, it’s also in smaller sizes, thus more convenient for travel. I think the price difference wasn’t significant, but being able to get it when needed without a prescription, which also means paying for a doctor’s visit, was a big help.
Face
Anyone else use Yahoo email? Is it completely borked for any of you like it is for me?
Ben Franklin
Almost nothing changes..”Is there anything I have to do?’
‘No sir. Everything is done, but it looks like your monthly premium will increase by 15 dollars….’
“Before subsidy”
“Yes sir. BEFORE subsidy”
Baud
@cmorenc:
I think you can purchase. You’re just ineligible for subsidies because of your wife’s plan. I’d ask Richard.
The Red Pen
My employer cancelled my previous ACA-compliant policy and saddled me with a new one that has lower deductables and copays — same cost. My doctor is still in-network.
Did I get to keep my policy, though? No. Obama lied, and I saved money!
Violet
@Face: Seems okay for me.
WaterGirl
@Cacti: that’s quite an endorsement!
Violet
@Cacti: I’ve been thinking the same thing. Looking at who’s upset about it tells me it’s a good deal.
srv
@Face: Works for me, but you should always remember:
Perhaps something is wrong with your network or your morals.
The Red Pen
@Gene108:
Splunge.
CS
I was waiting on my boss and got bored, so I decided to see what the whole thing was about. This was November 1, in Texas.
I clicked over, signed up, pulled up my paystub on the paycheck company’s website, and put in all my information. I had one hang for about 90 seconds, maybe two minutes, when the website was generating my options list, and that was it. I think the whole process took less than twenty minutes. I got my e-mail messages from HealthCare.gov immediately. I spent another ten to fifteen minutes looking over the policies.
I didn’t qualify for any subsidies. In Texas there are no catastrophic plans available, and no platinum plans either. I had about the same number of bronze and gold plans (a dozen each), and a few more Silver plans (between 18 and two dozen). The highest-priced plans were still nearly $200 per month less than my employer’s contribution to my insurance, with about the same benefits. My deductible would be higher, but that’s the only difference I saw. I’ll admit, I didn’t check every line, but the ones I did look over compared favorably or were better than what I have. And the insurance carrier my employer uses has a terrible payout record even within the insurance industry, so I was looking at the other insurance carriers’ policies more closely.
I figured Governor Perry would be standing at the state line, shooting all of my electrons out of the intertubes before they could make their way to Socialism, but apparently he was too busy screwing someone else to pay attention to me that day.
Still and all – easy, quick and painless. And I was all done well before my boss was free.
Karen in SoCal
I went through Covered California and was able to see all my options. I am eligible for a subsidy; I ended up choosing a Blue Cross plan with $2000 deductible for $200/month. My private insurance (Aetna – $5000 deductible) was costing me $500/month. So I can say in all sincerity, “Thanks, Obama!”
protothad
My family signed up through the federal exchange. Tried it on the first week and of course had no luck. Tried again a few weeks later and had no real problems after registering with a new login name. We found a very reasobably priced policy from a non-profit health care cooperative (set up using money granted under the ACA). It includes a large, nationwide provider network that allows us to stay in network even when travelling in our RV. This after years of being turned down for insurance for pre-existing conditions. Count us as satisfied ObamaCare customers.
Danack
@The Red Pen: “No. Obama lied, and I saved money!”
See? It’s Socialihisum restricting the insurance companies from screwing as much profit as they can out of people!!1!
THANKS OBAMA!
Gene108
@jharp:
No.
I mean why Iran?
FFS Obama’s a Sunni Muslim.
Is his anti-colonial rage so great he’d betray his own people to the Iranians?
I guess knowing that after January 1, 2014 his plan to destroy America will be complete, with implementation of a law he named afte himself, Obamacare, I guess he has his sights set in destroying the world.
First the country that fostered him and next the nations where he is from.
the Reverend boy
@Tripod: Thanks for that!
Gypsy Howell
I tried signing up on October 1 and experienced the same issues you’ve heard ad nauseum — site crashed, site unavailable, having to re-enter all my personal information every time I tried to get back into the account to continue, etc.
After about 2 weeks, I got all the way through to ID verification, and must have answered one the the questions wrong (I’ve moved a lot, so I think I answered a question about one of my previous addresses incorrectly) and then got stuck. I tried starting over a bunch of times to see if I could get through verification, but having once failed, I wasn’t able get anywhere online. I tried calling their help line, but that was kind of a joke- she was just as clueless as I was about what to do.
So, I tried the phone verification through Experion, but Experion needed a reference number which was nowhere to be found on on my account. Apparently, this reference number only shows up on the screen on your first verification failure, and never again. So Experion was unable to help me.
So, I tried uploading my driver’s license, and of course the upload feature crashed. I tried numerous times, and eventually, about a week later, I got my ID uploaded, and waited for my confirmation email.
And waited… and waited… and waited. I’ve still never received it.
Sometime during the first week of November, I decided to scrap my initial application and start over with a new account. I got a new gmail address, opened a new account with a new login ID name, and presto! I was in. It took about 10 minutes. Of course, by this time I was an expert on going through the screens and entering my information.
I shopped for plans for a few weeks, and signed up for one in mid- November. I didn’t have to pay for it then. In fact, there was no option to. I got a message on the website from my new insurer — who incidentally is the same as my old insurer, just with a better rate — that I’d be getting an invoice within 45 days. Gee I hope so, or I won’t have insurance come Jan 1. Worst case scenario, I’ll call them up in a few weeks. I made sure to take screen shots of the website screens with my confirmation in case I have problems.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with the selection of plans and the costs. The application process was a trainwreck, but I was highly motivated to complete my application, so I just tried to overlook all the headaches.
the Reverend boy
@Lee: i asked the online tech help folks and they said it was indicative of a problem with the website. they advised patience. given folks advice hear and other advice i’ve read over the past few weeks, maybe i should create an email account specifically for the ACA?
Mike R.
I’m covered by my employer but my 30 yo daughter who hasn’t had insurance in years is probably one of the people the law was designed to cover. I’m in Rhode Island which has set up a state exchange and that’s where I went to get coverage. She doesn’t work and has some learning disabilities so that’s the short background.
As far as online enrollment, it wasn’t happening; the ID verification wasn’t working and because she lives with me my income showed up as her income (this was early November when not much was working right). Being in a small state has certain advantages, one of which is that Healthsource RI is only a 15 minute drive and once I was able to sit with a staffer it was a pretty short while to find that she qualified for Medicaid and to get her enrolled.
Bottom line; it was far more complex process than I expected and I believe it will be a major obstacle for many people, on the other hand, she has coverage so the result is what it should be.
Linnaeus
I went though the Washington state exchange and (except for the first day) have had no problems. I’ve set up an account, but have not yet bought a plan. I’m thinking of going with Group Health, even though they are a little more than some of the other plans, because I was with Group Health in the past, I know their facilities, and I know what I’m getting with them.
Ben Franklin
Hyperthyroidism in babies up in Calif.
http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=28599
Violet
WaPo has a story on residents in one of the poorest counties in Kentucky getting signed up for health insurance.
This is why the Republicans are afraid.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Like RalfW I went through MNSure. There were some minor hangups, such as it seems the website is down for maintenance pretty much every weekend, but I eventually got done. It says that I qualify for Minnesota Care, which is our SChip program, though adults can qualify as well. My premium is going to be about $30 a month. I don’t yet know exactly what my benefits are going to be.
handsmile
Re Iran nuclear deal
As anyone yet read or heard the name/phrase “Neville Chamberlain” or “Munich Agreement” invoked to rebuke Obama and Kerry? It’s still before noon here EST, but I can’t imagine it will be much longer before such is hurled.
Asking the next four random people you meet for their views on Iran, you will encounter opinion no more knowledgeable or sophisticated than what was presented this morning on CNN or the “liberal” MSNBC. One doesn’t expect much but this was industrial-strength ignorance and arrogance.
This Guardian article provides some excellent background on this interim agreement; the first three paragraphs of particular interest:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/24/secret-usa-iran-talks-nuclear-deal
sparrow
@dr. luba: I realize not everyone has the luxury to travel to Europe, but if you ever do, you should be able to get the cheap inhaler at most pharmacies. I found this out by accident last year when I was in Athens and the pollution overwhelmed me (I hadn’t been using my inhaler in over a year). The Greek pharmacist was very nice and it only cost me a few euro as I recall. Obviously that might be totally useless to you if you use them a lot or don’t go to Europe ever, but thought I would throw it out there.
Lee
@the Reverend boy:
As mentioned above another option (if you have not tried it) is to try to login while in private mode. This prevents any corrupt cookies from messing up the authentication process.
If a password reset is possible try that next as what I am thinking is that the healthcare.gov thinks your password is X (or null/blank) and you think it is Y. It could be that it does not even have your login registered anymore.
Resetting your password would eliminate a couple of those possibilities. If a reset fails, then create a new login/email just for healthcare.gov.
HTH
Gin & Tonic
More in the decline and fall of a once-great newspaper. The Gray Lady has an article about Whitey Bulger’s brother Billy, and how he never gave up any information to anyone. The headline is “Sticking by a Murderous Brother, and Paying for It Dearly.” How dearly, you might ask? So dearly that he was the longest-serving president of the State Senate, and president of UMass, as a result of which he is drawing a state pension of $200,000/yr. The suffering, Lord, the suffering he has to endure. What a crock of shit.
fuckwit
I logged in to Covered California a few days after the ACA went live. Looked around, found some policies that were around $60/mo after subsidies (all Anthem, of course). Looked pretty good. But then the people at the local clinic I use told me I probably qualify for MediCal, and was waiting to find out about that. Haven’t heard back from them. Maybe there’s a way to do that through the website.
A friend who is a very poor artist/musician/DJ said he logged in to Covered California and was told he didn’t qualify for MediCal. So that made me want to put the whole project on hold until I maybe could get some more sure path in to MediCal through my clinic.
Gin & Tonic
@handsmile: Old news. My wife is, unfortunately, FB “friends” with a grade-A wingnut, who had Chamberlain mentioned early this morning.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gene108:
The wailing and rending of garments on the right, and by the racist and militarist cabal in Israel is making my Schadenfreude meter peg.
These people are such assholes. They haven’t bothered to look at the agreement, mainly because to do so would take valuable moments away from their wailing and rending of garments.
Richard Mayhew
@the Reverend boy: Call in if you know what plan you want and what your subsidy should be — use the call center to avoid the blue screen of death.
dedc79
@handsmile: Ask and ye shall receive
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
Aye. They’re very afraid. ACA is a game changer, and the 1% and their lickspittles in the GOP don’t like it one bit.
It encompasses their doom.
fuckwit
@handsmile: Hmm (checks The Other Cole’s site looking for actual information). http://www.juancole.com/2013/11/mideast-through-tehran.html Yep, The Other Cole has some actual data and knowledge, unlike our useless entertainment media.
Richard Mayhew
@Baud: Correct, if an employer offers “affordable” and PPACA compliant coverage to the employee, the family is able to shop on the Exchange but can not get subsidies for family coverage. This is a glitch that in a healthy political environment would have been fixed by follow-up legislatition.
Chris
@dedc79:
Ahhhhh, there it is. Regime change and nothing but regime change, everything else is unacceptable. See, it was never about the nukes in the first place.
Xantar
Maryland’s website is somewhat functioning now (I worked for one of the non-profits that employs Navigators, so we had to deal with that website a lot). Sadly, Maryland (or the contractor) pretty much screwed the pooch on this one. This wasn’t just a matter of not being able to deal with all the complexities of setting up the system. The website design was just plain incompetent. It’s now mostly working, but it shouldn’t have been this hard.
Having said that, I have an account and any time I want I can choose a plan and get enrolled. I haven’t pushed the final button yet because I’m a procrastinator.
Villago Delenda Est
@Richard Mayhew:
If this had happened as recently as say 30 years ago, it would have been fixed. But for the last 20 years, thanks to Newt Gingrich, our political environment has been made toxic on purpose.
For that crime, Gingrich can never be forgiven.
Violet
@handsmile: Chamberlain? Seriously? Outside of students of history, what will that even mean to most people? Those who are already inclined to screech “appeasement” will nod along sagely. Anyone else will either think they’re crazy (as usual) or wonder what they’re talking about.
Another Holocene Human
Florida. My wife made it all the way through healthcare.gov to shopping and comparing plans. She found the one she wanted. It was a smidge cheaper than her COBRA & has the advantage that the company can’t find a pretext to drop you. (I got dropped off COBRA in Massachusetts over a decade ago so I know of what I speak.)
However, the purchase your plan thingymabob refused to execute–the website just hung for several hours (no kidding)–so she went to the insurance company and purchased the plan she wanted directly.
We think that there’s no subsidy involved but ultimately that’ll get reviewed in April of 2015.
First bill should be coming along soon. We’re in.
Meanwhile, I have compliant insurance through my employer. I just got a flu shot at Walgreens w/o copay which is pretty effing sweet. Back when I had Aetna’s student coverage (gosh, what was the brand name for that wallet raping experience?) I used to have to pay full price for vaccines, which is boneheaded as fuck. I was like, dude, hospitalization is a little more expensive. Also, I’m broke. Additionally.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris:
The Israelis and the Saudis are uncomfortable allies when it comes to Iran. The Saudis hate the Shiite regime nearly as much as Likud does, but for different reasons.
We invaded the wrong country in 2003. It should have been Saudi Arabia, to do two things: exterminate the Bandit House of Saud, and eradicate the disease that is Wahhabism.
fuckwit
More detailed summary. http://www.juancole.com/2013/11/agreement-negotiate-enrichment.html
Don’t expect actual news from our idiotic “news” media. I go to The Other Cole for the goods on anything having to do with the Middle East at the moment.
patroclus
I had two part-time jobs and neither provided health insurance, so I was very much looking forward to the ACA so that I could sign up. On 10/1, I tried to log on to healthcare.gov, and got registered but couldn’t make it to the plan comparison page and gave up. Two weeks later, I got promoted to full-time, which means that I will be eligible for employer sponsored coverage next March. Given that my employer will be paying 80%+, I think that I will now just await that rather than going to the exchanges (although I will compare plans and see the various differences in coverage and cost). So, merely because of my job situation, I don’t think I will be relying on the ACA after all although I am hopeful that costs will decrease so that I won’t be paying too much. So, no health insurance for me for 4 more months, but then I’ll be covered – which, after 13 years of no coverage, seems like it will work out well. We’ll see…
Another Holocene Human
@Lee: I’m going to concur with another poster who suggested the call center for Reverend Boy. There’s no point in going through healthcare.gov if you know what plan you need and the fucking thing doesn’t quite seem to work yet for Florida–big surprise with the state totally throwing wrenches into the works left and right.
The good thing is that apparently the GOVERNMENT side of healthcare.gov is working okay because it managed to figure out shit like ‘same sex household, one person has insurance, one person purchasing’ blah blah without shitting the bed. It’s those damn forms that go to insurers that have been a problem all along that seem to be the choke point.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
Monday’s dose of schadenfreude:
More at the Guardian
Stella B
@dr. luba: the inhaler companies lobbied Congress for the propellant change. That way they get to extend their patent. It’s not the ozone, that’s just their cover story. That’s the government to industry revolving door at work.
Petorado
Colorado’s system seems to be working fine. I haven’t completed my transaction yet because we have a lot of options (48 in total) that we’re trying to sort through. Being able to combine three individual policies into one family policy will be a boon in terms of annual deductibles. All in all, we’ll be getting into better plans with more favorable terms at lower cost and have far less monthly paperwork to sort through. The exchanges are great because for the first time I can go to one place and see who offers insurance in our area and compare their policies. It’s now crystal clear just how inefficient and consumer-unfriendly the previous system was.
The in-laws signed-up and had no problems, other than having to go through the strange course of signing up for Medicaid and getting refused in order to be verified for benefits they were eligible for in their income bracket. The denial and verification response from Medicaid was almost immediate and they continued on to get their coverage.
My current insurance policy is getting cancelled at the end of the year, because apparently it didn’t meet the new federal minimum coverage guidelines. I’ll shed no tears over its loss.
handsmile
@Gin & Tonic: , @dedc79:
Well, thanks (I guess), that was fast. And the NRO screed was filed yesterday afternoon. I suppose I’m wondering whether Blitzer or Matthews (or other mainstream peddlers of Village opinion) will be raising the comparison by this afternoon.
Also, G&T: you are simply coldhearted. From such lofty heights, Billy’s sway has been reduced to serving as grand marshal for Southie’s St. Paddy’s Day parade.
@fuckwit:
Very grateful for the link to that Cole. Richly informative as usual.
Another Holocene Human
@brendancalling: The message is usually boilerplate about how subsidies work. I mean, mine didn’t have specific information.
Also, too, they did that annoying government thing of making a pdf that only works in Adobe Reader. I mean, who uses that any more? I only had it installed on my machine to deal with IRS forms. At least I had it. Got a blank page in any other pdf reader.
Greg
Only took me about 15 minutes here in CA. No glitches, no slowdowns, worked just as well if not better than private insurance websites. I am currently on Medi-Cal but will be able to switch to a really affordable plan once I find a decent paying job. I was completely uninsurable before due to pre-existing conditions (for private ins) and because I was a single adult male with no dependents (I used to not qualify for Medi-Cal). None of my friends or family here in CA have had a policy cancelled or premiums raised, most have managed to get better coverage for the same as they pay now, or are paying less. To echo the WA commenter above, we kicked the Republicans to the curb last election and amazingly within the last two years CA has returned to being the fiscally sound State that provides excellent social services, just like it was before. I am very, very happy.
negative 1
@Cacti: @Violet: Has anyone seen the “Iran Facts” ads on YouTube? I listen to music through YouTube at times and they come on at random, giving the ‘history’ of the Iran conflict and stopping just short of calling for nuclear assault. Anyone know who’s sponsoring these lies? Can’t find a group with that name online.
Another Holocene Human
@dr. luba: It would have been great if a research institution could have developed a new propellant and given it to the world free of charge, but we defunded all of that, too, on the state and federal level, so they’ll be wanting their patents as well.
It’s a cold, cold, cold, cold world.
Another Holocene Human
@Chris: Okay, so one thing to make sure is that you’ve answered the question about smoking in “My Information”. It’s the only question they can ask you about your health status and you have to answer it before you can shop for plans.
The only problem is that the website will act like you’ve answered everything but then won’t let you proceed because you haven’t. So make sure you check on that.
The chat person in our case didn’t know either but my wife figured it out by basically clicking everything at random until it came up.
BAD website design!
? Martin
My experience is a bit different. I don’t need the exchanges, but CA has gone all-in on the spirit of the law. My large employer gives employees a number of choices – it’s been as many as 8-10 plans in the past, from perhaps 4 different insurers (including a self-insurance option, as we run hospitals and clinics and stuff). A range of insurance types – HMO, PPO, etc. Kaiser has always been one of the choices (one option), and I’ve always had Kaiser. This year they significantly reworked the plans. They’re much closer in alignment with what’s offered on the exchanges. Some plans went away, others changed fairly significantly, some new options opened up. We didn’t explore much, because our Kaiser plan is still there essentially unchanged, but many of my coworkers are changing plans. None seem to be unhappy with the changes – some like the new mix better (one coworker with some quite specific medical issues was able to keep her specialists in a new hybrid plan that she’s pretty excited about).
So, to me nothing better, nothing worse, but a certain amount of overall change and disruption as people around me come to terms with the new offerings. I’m sure some are thoroughly upset about the changes and I’m sure some are getting legitimately screwed here, but they must be pretty small numbers or I’d have heard someone complaining about them by now.
Another Holocene Human
@Geoduck:
I must say, your state insurance commissioner rocks.
Amir Khalid
@Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):
Alas, and also alackaday. The Christmas Candle just happens to be Susan Boyle’s movie debut. Oh, well; at least no one’s blaming the flop on her.
Mike E
@fuckwit: This is wonderful. I’ve bookmarked Prof Juan for future argument-settling.
Dave
New York City area. Im late 40’s, single, male, dont smoke, and was hospitalized for nearly two months last year with an infection due to diabetes.
I have $100k+ in medical debt from the hospitalization and will be declaring bankruptcy as a result.I was on New York’s preexisting insurance plan after the hospitalization. That was 421$ a month. Then I got put on to the federal preexisting condition plan in July for $403 a month but that was worse, and had a $250 drug deductible.
I tried signing up for the new york exchange starting on the 2nd. the website was effectively unusable for the first two weeks prbably due to volume.
I signed up for healthcare through it. There were over 100 options.
The cheapest bronze program was 330$/mo. The 2nd cheapest platinum was $462/mo. I signed up for the later as I expect to need to go to the doctor. In addition it includes dental and optical. I have recieved a bill. Those prices do not include subsidies.
handsmile
@Violet:
Well, Very Serious People are Very Serious about their history, and World War II is the ur-text by which they evaluate and understand all subsequent world events. And as the Village high priests, they are the ones now prophesying doom.
Another Holocene Human
@cmorenc: Are you actually employed at your wife’s practice, or are you covered under spousal coverage? Because the law does not require you to take spousal coverage. Only coverage through your OWN employer DQ’s you from subsidies through the exchange, and that’s ONLY if it meets affordability requirements. If you are a FT employee, though, for a large employer, the employer is incentivized to make that coverage meet the guidelines. PT or tiny employer, no.
If your wife’s practice is, like, 5 people, have they considered shopping around? Maybe just given everyone what they would have spent on premiums and let them buy their own?
Carol
@RaflW: How does the plan you bought compare to exchange plans. Was cost the only factor in your decision?
Paul in KY
I am a disabled vet & have govt healthcare (like if I had retired).
Still would rather have had my knee good.
The Red Pen
@Violet:
Calling someone a modern Neville Chamberlain was the go-to insult employed by wingnuts against anti-Iraq-war partisans. I wish I had a nickel for every time I was compared to Chamberlain in 2003, but I think that money went to Halliburton.
It was a historically inaccurate comparison, but we’re talking about wingnuts.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Amir Khalid:
Susan Boyle’s small part in the movie is probably the reason that it made any money at all.
Paul in KY
@Violet: You’ve hit the nail on the head there.
NotMax
There’s a website?
Jeez, you’d think they’d let people know.
/Harry & Louise 2.0
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: Billy Bulger is a POS.
ruemara
@patroclus: You know what? Congrats on both developments.
Paul in KY
@Violet: I think part of it is they get to use the name ‘Neville’. IMO, ‘Neville’ is not the most manly sounding name & makes him sound like a Liberal Tosser (even though he was PM of the Conservatives).
All part of the meme they want to advance.
Violet
@The Red Pen: Yeah, but that was ten years ago. 20-year-olds now were ten years old then. The whole of the adult population has shifted. Far fewer WWII vets left than there were then. It just sounds ridiculous. It also sounds old and out of touch.
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: Now you’re just being crazy, VDE. You know an invasion of ‘The Birthplace of the Prophet’ by non-Muslims would have sent the whole Islamic World around the bend.
Another Holocene Human
@handsmile:
Yeah, but you know what? Fuck those people. They must not know any Iranians.
Why do they need to invade another country so bad? They can’t answer that question.
eemom
Krug today on the state of the ACA.
Particularly interesting, the points re the insurance industry’s proverbial skin in the game.
Chris
@Another Holocene Human:
That is for damn certain.
@Villago Delenda Est:
I tend to think that war would’ve gone badly, too.
But yes, you’re right about the Saudis and Israel. Actually, the biggest negative repercussion i can foresee from Iran getting the bomb would be Saudi Arabia scrambling to get one too.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Violet:
You have something there. I think that the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 contributed in no small way to the election of heavily Democratic Congresses for decades. The Republicans, and their paymasters, rely on fear and division, removing people’s fear of falling ill without health insurance removes one of their most-used tools.
Stella B
Since we selected a governor who was experienced in running a large state rather than one who was experienced in running a large company into the ground, our exchange has been available for shopping since July. We finally pulled the plug and signed up this last Saturday. Easy. We went with a bronze plan which costs $5K per year less than our COBRA, but which has a $5K higher deductible. Hopefully we will come out ahead.
Fuckwit: the exchange will tell you whether you qualify for Medicaid. What state are you in?
I wanted to go with the high deductible bronze HSA plan, but got over-ruled. I checked drug prices anyway. Generic Singulair costs $175 for 30 in the US and $78 for 84 from canadadrugs.com. Both the generic and the name brand from both countries are made in the same factory in England. Best healthcare system in the world!
ranchandsyrup
The god damned KC Chiefs’ inability to keep the chargers out of the endzone at the end of the game meant that I went from winning my survivor pool to splitting it 4 ways. AAAARRRRRGH. But I still made money on it.
Bill Arnold
@Gene108:
The MSM (and RWM, and there is approximately no LWM) broadcast media have been awful on it. FWIW, the state department has a moderately detailed fact sheet and there is also a Joint Plan of Action document.
may
In NH there is only one insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross, offering private and exchange plans. There is no state exchange because the Republicans didn’t get that going when they were in charge of the General Court. Something may happen, but for now there is no state exchange and only Blue Cross. We already had a family policy on the private market as we are self employed. It was expensive, but it had good coverage. Well, that is why it was expensive. Blue Cross cancelled the plan. It was not a plan that did not meet ACA standards. That was not the case at all. Still they cancelled it. We called and they offered new plans with not as good coverage. Yes, the coverage is less. To get almost the same coverage costs more. Blue Cross told us that this had to be done because of “Obamacare” and were encouraging us to be mad at the legislation. But our coverage was better than what the ACA mandates. When we pointed out that they were wrong, they were more hostile. Finally we were able to extend our current plan (so kind of them and it obviously is up to snuff with the ACA) for one year for more than $1000 more for the year. In order to keep the better coverage than the one we could now get on the private market (and through the national exchange) we signed up. Hopefully by next year things will work more smoothly. It is disgusting the way Blue Cross is trying to blame the legislation for their decision to offer crappier plans at higher costs. They are lying, and there is nothing to do to get the kind of coverage they offer to large groups. They are abusing and taking further advantage of the private marketplace. No suprise though.
Chris
@eemom:
It’s weird: I’m only allowed to read 10 New York Times articles a month, if by “read” we mean “go to the website and click on the article” (and I’ve exhausted all of mine for this month). But if by “read” we mean “clicking on a link someone else provided” like you just did, then I can read as many as I want.
And yes, I agree. More California, please.
Paul in KY
@ranchandsyrup: That was a sweet pass Phil Rivers threw to beat you, must say.
Violet
@Chris: If there’s an article on the NYT that I want to read and I’ve exhausted all my views for the month (which rarely happens, because I’m not a regular reader), I Google the article title and click from the results. I’ve always been able to get to read it that way.
I think clicks from Google, Twitter, etc. have their own page-view counts that are separate from the ten allowed views per month.
ranchandsyrup
@Paul in KY: It was purty. So beautiful it felt like a thousand plus dollars slipping through my fingers. SO BITTER. I thought I’d wake up today happy that I still made money. IT’S NOT WORKING!
Oh yeah, after the Lions lost (other thing I needed to happen to win the pool). I did a very dumb thing and told my wife that I was on track to win. Not smart.
Amir Khalid
@Chris:
Not weird, actually. The NYT does it that way on purpose. I guess it’s trying to entice casual readers into subscribing.
Another Holocene Human
@may: Basically if you’re really pissed I suggest you start calling your state ins commissioner’s office, your state attny general’s office and your state delegates and bitch up a storm about their shitty insurance commissionering. Other states’ insurance commissioners told the ins co’s to go fuck themselves this summer and come back with more reasonable prices. Why should NH be the only state in New England (besides LePageLand, and I think his days are numbered) to let insur co’s run all over the populace? Seriously, be a Yankee and burn up the phone lines over this over-charge outrage.
Mike E
@Paul in KY: That, and, umm, the US boots on the ground in Saudi Arabia after Gulf War I was the impetus behind UBL doing every one of his dastardly deeds right afterward. Too.
Paul in KY
@ranchandsyrup: Man, didn’t know you lost that kind of change. I’m a Chargers fan, but if I had made same kind of bet, I’d be pissed too.
handsmile
@ Another Holocene Human
I suspect Fred Hiatt knows some Iranians. I suspect Richard Haass knows some Iranians. I suspect Christianne Amanpour* knows some Iranians. Even CNN’s Chris Cuomo or frat boy Scarborough may know some Iranians. And every single damned one of them knows who Neville Chamberlain is.
“Those people” are the ones who concoct and promote Village opinion. “Those people” are the ones who interview, appear with, or provide microphones or the printed page to people like Cornyn, Graham, or Schumer who as Senators will matter a great deal as to the final shape (if any) of an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.
So, “fuck those people” doesn’t really work for me. It is worth pursuing why “they” can’t answer the question on invasion or a host of other issues related to Iran.
*ETA: to be fair, her appraisal of the deal on CNN this morning was not as staggeringly ignorant or bellicose as all others I encountered on the teevee.
Paul in KY
@Mike E: If what VDE kvetched about had happened, I don’t know if you could have turned your back on any devout Muslim. They are damned serious about their religion & woohoo would that have freaked them out.
Paul in KY
@handsmile: It ia also part of the ‘trying to turn Achmindidajdadoodle into Hitler’ trope they have tried in past. He helps them out every once in a while by saying stupid/racist shit & now they want to have their ‘Neville’ to tie to the ‘Hairy Hitler’.
Gotta sell some munitions….
StringOnAStick
@handsmile: Roy Edroso already has a Village Voice column up about the ‘Obama = Chamberlin x Hitler’ meme from the right; the link is here in Roy’s blog post about it:
StringOnAStick
Let me try that again: Link to Roy
dr. luba
@Stella B: Do you have citations to back that up? I’m not being snarky, just want to know. I read back when the change was going through that “ban on CFC inhalers, which was put in place in 2005 by the Environmental Protection Agency and the FDA to comply with the 1987 Montreal Protocol.”
And it’s not just the US–HFA is everywhere. And cheap. As I mentioned, I bought HFA inhalers in India for about $3 each at a reputable pharmacy.
I know that Big Pha rma will use any excuse to jack up prices and screw consumers and insurance companies; that is a given. And the price they are charging in now way reflects the cost of the “research and development” involved here. I just think, based on what I’ve read, that they are reacting avariciously to an opportunity.
eemom
@Chris:
I’ve weaned myself off the emmessemm almost entirely, so I don’t have that issue anymore, but from the days when I actually did want to read 10+ NYT articles per month, I discovered this handy little trick: you take the page address, like below
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/opinion/krugman-california-here-we-come.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
you delete everything from the ? onwards and then re-click, and presto — your 11th, etc. free article.
Not bad for an ancient technotardasaurus like myself.
(And actually someone must have taught me that, but I forget who.)
may
@Another Holocene Human:
Sure, I make the calls, and I’m deeply involved in state politics. The state knows about it. Not like I’m not used to it. Just sharing the experience. And as to NH not being like the rest of New England, we get better all the time, but there is a long way to go. LePage is right in step with the legislature we threw out of NH last go around. As VT would, ME would benefit from instant run off voting. We just don’t have vaible Indies and Greens to split the vote in NH.
A Covered Californian
I signed up with Covered CA. Husband and I are both self-employed, looking after a toddler, so our income has been down and we qualify for subsidies. I currently have a bronze plan equivalent with Blue Cross that I pay $250/ month for ($5900 deductible); husband has no insurance because of preexisting conditions. We’ve chosen to go with a gold plan from Blue Shield for the two of us (no deductible) and that will be $340/ month for the two of us after subsidy. So, we will pay $90 more per month to cover both of us with $6000 less deductible. Child is covered on Medical (and was already in the Healthy Families program.)
Ours is the situation you would think a society would want to encourage: We are entrepreneurs, taking risks, making new things. Without health coverage though, far fewer people would take such risks and make things in the economy.
We couldn’t be happier with the situation.
As for any hiccups: The first time through the site, the shopping cart did not work. We wondered where our plan info was, and logged back in to find out we needed to upload drivers licenses. It would have been nice to get an email about that. We still have not gotten a bill from Blue Shield and we’ll need to pay it for coverage to begin Jan 1. Far better experience than the DMV though.
handsmile
@Paul in KY:
Yes, that was a tried-and-true trope for a number of years. Of course, now that Ahmadinejad is no longer the president of Iran, the Villagers have to come up with a new caricature and that’s hard work, dammit!
Since Hassan Rouhani was inaugurated in August, succeeding Ahmadinejad, there has been a remarkable improvement in US-Iran relations. That Ali Khamanei remains Iran’s Supreme Leader during this welcome progress scrambles terribly Village preconceptions and prejudices. So it’s simply easier to turn to the President of American Foreign Policy, John McCain or his BFF Bibi Netanyahu on all things iranian.
Villago Delenda Est
@Paul in KY:
And for me, my hearing, which just sucks, even with hearing aids.
Amir Khalid
@eemom:
Sorry to break this to you, but The NYT has ensured that trick doesn’t work any more.
scav
NYT doesn’t want to shut the walls too tightly as it needs the click-volume in their marketing division, but with subscriptions it pulls more cash in from the scrupulous that still find anything it says of value and insight — or is addicted to crossword puzzles / the book review.
Chyron HR
@eemom:
Get all your shitty pseudo-news for free with this ONE WEIRD TRICK!
dr. luba
@Stella B: Check GoodRx.com for actual local prices. And always call Costco to find out their price. The generic (montelukast) has really come down in price in the last six months, and you should be able to find it for about $20 per month.
Beware that many pharmacies will overcharge you for generics, pricing them a bit below the brand name, so you feel you’re saving money, but making huge profits for themselves. This is common in OTC antihistamines, for example. I went out of town and forgot to pack my generic Claritin. I ended up buying the store brand at a chain pharmacy, $8 for ten tablets. I buy a bottle of 365 from Costco for about twice that.
Also keep in mind that, when buying cheap generics, much of the price you pay in the pharmacy fee. If it is a chronic medication, you can often buy a year’s supply for much less than half of what you would pay if you refill monthly or three-monthly.
handsmile
@eemom:
As a member of the bar, is it ethical of you to engage in such practices or, perhaps even worse, to promote it and instruct others in copyright infringement?
A slippery slope i daresay, madam.
p.s. not that I’m ungrateful for such instruction, mind you.
ETA: Amir Khalid: well, that sucks. And me all giddy about lawbreaking.
Villago Delenda Est
@Paul in KY:
Never would have happened, as the Bandit House of Saud and the Bush Crime Family are very strong allies.
You’re right about the invasion of the homeland of the Prophet, too. If the rest of Islam is going to be rid of the disease that is Wahhabism, they’re going to have to do it themselves. Non Muslims cannot do it for them. Nevertheless, not likely to happen given the fantastic wealth of the Bandit House of Saud, the Wahhabists’ partners in tyranny.
Besides, we in the nominal realm of Christendom have our own fundie asswipes to deal with.
dr. luba
@eemom: I have heard that if you delete the NYT cookies, and then restart your browser, you can exceed the limit.
There are rarely more than ten articles a month I want to read. But every once in a while, near the end of the month…….
policomic
I live in Minnesota, and though I experienced some glitches with the MNSure site, I was able to sign up, and now I should be all set. This is great news for me, as I do not have an employer-provided plan, and I have Type 1 diabetes. That means that, prior to Obamacare, I literally had only one choice for health insurance, a state-mandated but privately run plan specifically designed to accommodate those, like me, with pre-existing conditions whose incomes were not low enough to qualify for Medicaid or the state’s low-income program.
I will be paying about $100 less per month, for a better plan (plus dental, which I didn’t have before), with a deductible half the size of my previous one. I won’t have to think twice about going to the doctor, and I will even be able to see a psychologist, if I choose to, which would have been unthinkable for the past several years.
My chronic condition and my employment history (I’ve never drawn unemployment, never been on foodstamps–not that there’s anything wrong with that, just filling in details) have meant that I have had to spend many hours on the phone with the representatives of insurance companies. The individuals I talked to were unfailingly polite, but it was extremely difficult to get a straight answer, and I often had to call, and call (and hold, and hold) to get them to correct some egregious mistake that could have put me in a very bad spot, had I not been vigilant (and patient). It was hard to avoid the conclusion that this labyrinth was designed deliberately to frustrate less tenacious customers, but I can’t prove that, of course. Anyway, anyone who thinks government-run programs are uniquely disorganized and bureaucratic has never had to deal with the “efficiency” of private-sector insurers.
handsmile
@StringOnAStick:
Appreciate the link and your efforts!
Stella B
@dr. luba: Mother Jones may not be the most unbiased source, but I had also heard the story from a pharma exec. HFC inhalers were available for years after other aerosols were banned.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/07/cost-increase-asthma-inhalers-expensive
BerkeleyMom
Thanks Republicans, for (pretending) to give a shit about those of us who spend years on the individual insurance market. Some perspective–13 years ago when my family first applied for insurance, we filled out reams of paperwork on our medical histories and my son was rejected for pre-existing conditions as was I. I fought back for weeks and finally got coverage at a very high rate with a high deductible. He entered a high risk pool and we paid triple rates for his premiums until he got covered through his University (Thanks Wash U!!).
Anybody who thinks some glitches in a website launch is a nightmare obviously hasn’t spent years held hostage by private insurers like my family has. Yearly increases of 20-30% were routine and no one in Congress gave a shit then.
That said, CoveredCalifornia’s website has worked smoothly and we saw our options quickly. As we do not qualify for a subsidy, we will stay with the devil we know (though the premium increase for next year for ACA compliant, better insurance, is only about 5%). Win.
Here’s a question I haven’t heard talked about–lots of us have older spouses who go on Medicare before we do. They are also usually the family member whose job gives the family insurance coverage so we all lose our coverage when they retire. It would make sense for us to be able to buy into medicare early if this is the case, no?
Winnie
I signed up through the Maryland state health connection program this morning. My premiums are for $336 (which is more than I was paying before,) a month but that’s for the Platinum plan and I didn’t qualify for subsidies. I’ve had stomach surgery twice and had to visit the ER twice just this fall, so on my parents urging I went for the most comprehensive coverage I could get. My old coverage was often pretty stingy. I had tried twice before, in the first couple weeks when the site was chaos, and this weekend when they were doing maintenance. Since they said they’d be online this morning after 8 am, I got on at 8:15 and with all my info saved it only took about 20 minutes. So yeah for anyone in Maryland the site IS working-except between the hours of 11pm-5am when they do maintenance.
sab
@the Reverend boy: I had the same experience in Ohio. I tried calling the Federalexchange early in October and they weren’t much help. I called back again last week, and they found my original attempt at enrollment, fixed it, read through what plans were available, and helped me complete my enrollment.
So if you failed in October online, try again by telephone.
GRANDPA john
@may: one thing you can do is make sure that you elect Democrats to run the state government
Chris
@handsmile:
Man, the number of fucking n00bs over the last eight years who’ve tried to use Ahamdinejad’s (sometimes misquoted) speeches and state of mind as conclusive proof that Iran Wants To Nuke Israel has been enough to drive a man to drink.
I did wonder if anything would change in the wingnuts’ message after he left office, but guess not. (No, I didn’t really expect it to).
Paul in KY
@handsmile: Had forgotten that the AChmi guy was no longer the figurehead President. Thanks for reminding me.
The real ruler, of course, is Al Khameni.
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m all (generally) for your off-with-their-heads comments. Guess I took that one a little too literally.
Stella B
@dr. luba: Thanks for the site. With drugstore.com gone checking cash prices is tough. Kind of suspicious though when the cash price is $160 but there’s a coupon for $16 instead. It makes me suspect there’s quite a mark up in the system….
Mnemosyne
@Stella B:
I second the recommendation to check Costco’s prices if there’s one near you. Depending on your state’s laws, you may not even have to be a member to use their pha … er, place that dispenses medications. I know that here in California, they’re required to fill prescriptions for anyone, including non-members.
siciliandish
Lost my health insurance with my last W2 job in 2011, started a small business with my sister using 401K money. We have managed to keep the biz afloat, and pay most of our bills, however I have not been able to get affordable insurance due to a past cancer diagnosis (I’m cured now). I’ve successfully enrolled in the WA exchange, know what my subsidy is and picked a silver level plan. A small software glitch prevented me from completing the process, however, I’ve contacted the insurer directly, verified everything and will have insurance beginning Jan 1.
Mikeyes
According to CNN, REP Boehner did get enrolled but it took four hours. Unless this is a spoof, Boehner’s office put out a press release admitting that he had gotten on while he was tweeting.
dr. luba
@Mnemosyne: @Stella B: As I noted, too, always check prices for larger quantities, especially if you will be paying cash, or if you have a very high deductible. Those dispensing fees really add up, especially on the cheap generics.
GoodRx shows me that for 500 tablets of my hypertensive medication, I could pay anywhere from 20 to 89 dollars in my neighborhood. For levothyroxine 200 mcg, the disparity is even greater: from 56 dollars to 322 dollars.
And watch this (or at least look at the bar graph):
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/11/think-generic-means-cheap-think-again.html
West of the Cascades
Oregon’s exchange has been a disaster, but I’m still trying to be patient with it. On October 1, they had “bottom line” information on-line for new plans that were available through the exchange – monthly premium, deductible, out-of-pocket maximum. About two weeks later, they had more details available (co-pays, network information, etc). I also was able to go directly to the insurance companies’ websites and find out even more plan details.
But it wasn’t until early November that Cover Oregon had pdf “applications” posted that you could download, fill out, and mail in. And the application only tells you whether you are eligible to get insurance through the exchange (I’m lucky – I make enough money to not qualify for subsidies, so I am assuming the answer will be “yes”). But it is not until they process the application and determine your eligibility that they actually mail out the “enrollment” package that allows you to actually choose a plan and sign up for insurance.
About two weeks ago, the “application” became available to submit on-line (using only Internet Explorer, go figure). So I did that – I’ve called them and confirmed that the enrollment package should be sent by about December 4th, so I will have until December 15th to post-mark it and get coverage starting January 1st.
I should note that my old insurance (a “portability” plan with United Health Care) was cancelled a month ago (effective 12/31) – I think UHC is simply pulling out of the Oregon market. I was 100% sure I was going to change anyway — I should get a comparable plan for about $140 a month less in premium.
I know that I can go directly to an insurance company (or use an insurance broker) … but, dammit, I want to go “through the exchange” so I am a statistic showing “one more person enrolled in Obamacare.” There’s absolutely no reason Oregon couldn’t have had the exchange working from Day One – other states did. The two-step process to enroll is infuriating (MAILING me the enrollment package? Seriously? How about emailing me a pdf — or just letting me download it off your website? Or just fill out a fillable form on-line and hitting “enroll”?).
In short … I am very happy with the lower premium and with getting rid of UHC (which I had only because I had pre-existing conditions that precluded me from getting other private insurance until now). But somehow Oregon, whose Governor is a doctor, managed to screw up the enrollment process mightily. My patience with Cover Oregon is getting frayed the closer we get to the December 15th deadline …
ched
Here in PA, I tried to get on from day one, and was able to kind of create an account after about a week. A month or so later, still couldn’t log on, so I took the internet’s advice and started fresh with a new email account. That got me in.
2-3 weeks later, I’ve now filled out the healthcare.gov app for my family and me about 5 times, but every time I get to “review and sign,” I’m told that the verification system is down and I should try again later. So far, every time I try again later, I’m brought back to Step 2 of Getting Started, “Contact Information.” The system has retained most of my information, so (re-)filling out the app is mostly a matter of clicking “save and continue” until I reach the electronic signature page, at which point I get the above mentioned “verification system down” message telling me to try again later. Which I do. Which brings me back to the (almost) beginning.
Thank you, dr. luba and others, for the private browsing tip; I’ll try that one tonight – late, but not too late, in case they shut’r down for maintenance.
Any other tips appreciated.
Villago Delenda Est
@Paul in KY:
Given that most of the designated participants in 9/11 hailed from Saudi Arabia, it’s reasonable to assume that we definitely invaded the wrong country if we were looking to punish the country that had the greatest responsibility for those attacks. But the Dark Lord was demanding that various NSC minions conjure up out of thin air some sort of connection between mortal enemies Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
Also connecting Osama bin Laden with Iran would have been pointless as well.
Nothing about that entire thing made sense, unless you realize that every political and religious reason for it was djinned up as a cover for the naked greed of the Dark Lord and his awl bidness cronies.
Villago Delenda Est
@West of the Cascades:
Requiring that you use the rancid shit that is Internet Exploder with it is an absolute no-go. I refuse to use that browser…it’s burned me badly with security problems in the past that the twits at Redmond seem to be utterly oblivious to.
dr. luba
@Stella B: Thanks for the link. I’ll have a closer look later, but it sounds quite reasonable to me. Those pha rma ceutical companies are even more evil that I imagined……which is hard to believe.
Lokahi
Sorry, late to the party, but did post my success story in one of Richard’s earlier threads.
In short, registered in mid-October, shopped earlier this month, enrolled in a Gold-level plan last week. Saved $150 a month from my existing COBRA plan. Qualified for a significant subsidy, but choose not to use all of it in case my estimate of income for 2014 is off. Had to submit documentation of income estimate, which uploaded w/out difficulty.
This from Austin, TX using healthcare.gov because Rick Perry is an irredeemable idiot.
J R in WV
@Villago Delenda Est:
Sometimes I was thinking I was the only person in the world who could count the number of 9/11 terrorists up by country. They were nearly all Saudis, and the boss and all the money was Saudi as well.
Iraq, on the other hand, was a secular state with nothing whatsoever to do with any wahabbi terrorist cult whatsoever.
I weill never forget seeing Bush the younger holding hands with that Saudi monster who was visiting Bush at his Texas ranch. I didn’t see the pictures, but I am reliably informed they kissed each other also, too. Monsters! Texan monsters, hugging up to Saudi monsters.
Regarding health care, my wife got pneumonia, which caused septic shock, and she was in ICU on a ventilator for 3 weeks, and in the hospital (surgery to remove necrotic lung tissue, etc, etc) for 59 days. She was on Medicare, with decent supplemental insurance. The first big bill was for $338,000, of which we owed nothing.
We did pay parts of physician’s services bills, radiology, etc, but I doubt it ran as much as 5 figures. It wasn’t financially enjoyable, but for what it was, we weathered it fine. She can now walk 5 miles into a cave and back to see the art work, so we’re pretty happy. She is a determined person, and the physical therapist who told her not to be ashamed to use oxygen and a walker pissed her off so bad she worked twice as hard to get back on her feet.
This is probably a little distracted, I was into several pages on the white supremicist page before when my text got erased by accident, so bear with me here. Medicare works, and my government retirement healthcare works too. That would have been a better answer, but I understand why it couldn’t be done.
Attacking Iraq, though, there is no understanding that piece of excrement! Bush was and is a fetid monster, along with the rest of the Republican party. And the rest of the Bush clan!
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: 100% correct, VDE. Treason against us is what it was, IMO.