Alex Trebek: All right, Anita, what is your wager?
Anita: My continued sanity
Alex Trebek: For your continued sanity, the answer is...
(There should be a chime in here somewhere as the answer is revealed.)
The value of a customer service representative providing a straight and honest answer instead of a carefully constructed placation.
Anita: What is priceless?
Alex Trebek: That is correct!
I'll go ahead and caveat this right now, this post is a product of my continued frustration in the seemingly never-ending search to get health insurance.
So October 1 was the day that the process of getting health insurance as we knew it was supposed to be revolutionized. This was a day I had been looking forward to ever since I found out about Wilbur. As part of the Affordable Care Act, I could no longer be denied insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Enter the stupid government shutdown...
Now I don't normally talk about my political views but frankly that entire situation infuriated me. I do not care what your political affiliation is, the purpose of our government is to work for the people not get into pissing contests with the other party and force a government shutdown. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we taught as children how to share and play well with others?? Aren't we all forced to work WITH other people on a daily basis to resolve disagreements?? The asinine behavior put on display by the members of our House and Senate is embarrassing and frankly in ANY other company or organization in the world, every last one of them would probably be looking for other employment right about now. But that's beside the point...
The government shutdown meant that the new healthcare.gov website went live with a skeleton crew available to work and trouble-shoot any issues that arose with the site. It took me weeks to actually create an account and a few more weeks after that before I could log onto the website using said account. Not to mention the fact that the information on potential plans was not available on the website. So you were trying to apply for coverage without being able to compare the options beforehand. (I think that issue was the fault of the insurance companies as well as the website managers.)
I would personally be interested in finding out how many people have successfully applied for and selected an insurance plan through the Marketplace (healthcare.gov) at this point. I have lost track of the number of people I have talked to both online and over the phone over the last couple of months trying to get something sorted out and decided upon.
Once I'd finally gotten my application submitted, I was told only that I may qualify for Medicaid and that the state agency would contact me. One small problem...I'd already applied for Medicaid and been turned down. Utah agreed with my assessment, I still don't qualify. Then I was told that any reduced rate premiums were administered by the state agency. Again, Utah said that was not the case. And the vicious cycle of calling healthcare.gov then calling Utah's workforce services continued. At one point, my call was "accelerated" to the "Advance Resolution Center" giving me hope that I might actually be able to talk to someone who knew what the heck was going on. They were supposed to give me a call within 72 hours, let's just say that period of time has come and gone and I'm still waiting.
Today, I got to speak to Stacy. I rehashed the whole ordeal and everything I'd been trying figure out. She listened, even when I was crying hysterically and probably made no sense. Then wonder of wonders happened, instead of making some lame excuse about how the computer system was having problems, or that she couldn't view or edit my application, or that I'd have to be redirected to the "Advanced Resolution Center" in order to get help, or making any multitude of other excuses to get me off the phone, Stacy flat out told me that if I tried to reapply I'd probably get the same options from their website and that I should try to apply directly with the insurance companies. FINALLY, someone acknowledged that I wasn't going to get the help or the information I needed by always referring back to the Marketplace. Stacy also was honest with me that by applying directly with the insurance companies, I would have to pay the normal premiums. Well, Utah had already told me that they have nothing to do with reduced premiums for low-income citizens beyond enrollment in their Primary Care Network that doesn't cover any surgery in the first place. I had come to terms with that. I just needed someone to have the guts to tell me how I might actually get the information I needed instead of giving me the run-around and making me think that everything would get resolved if I just kept trying to work within the established system.
I got a list of insurance providers that my neurosurgeon (along with the University of Utah healthcare system) accepts and have narrowed things down. I can finally make a much needed decision and get on with things. I just needed to speak to someone willing to do the right thing and give me an honest answer even if it wasn't what I (or someone in a similar situation) wanted to hear. This whole process has illustrated something to me that I need to remember for life after Wilbur, I do not want to be led on or given false hope in any situation, it only leads to further stress and frustration for me. Give me brutal honesty anyday!!
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