I thought it might be nice to compare the Obamacare web-site/sign up experience to the private insurance sector enrollment process. It all began around mid-August when copious amounts of material began to arrive by mail. Then in mid-September the phone calls started. By the first of October emails reminders began to flood our in-boxes. Some days I wanted to crawl on the floor below the window sills to avoid having the mailman put that stuff directly into my hands. It felt like we were being stalked. The more post cards, letters, flyers, emails, etc that arrived, the more we resisted.
Finally, one Sunday afternoon my husband sat down and tried to make sense of it all. He spent the better part of the afternoon grappling with the complexities. At some point when he cried, "uncle," I sat down and tried to do the same via the web. I finally admitted defeat and realized I was going to have to do what we had long tried to avoid. I called the "help" line. Initially I was the 27th caller in the queue...not too bad considering the potential number of callers in the U.S.
After almost an hour on hold (while being repeatedly assured that my call was super important) I began to question the wisdom of having a 3-week enrollment period for what must be somewhere in the vicinity of nearly 100,000 retirees, but things being what they are--I held on. I held on for another 25 minutes or so until Faid took my call. My question was simple, "where is the plan comparison calculator on the website?" I'd clicked on every link and it was no where to be found. According to the really perky, catch phrase-laden video I had to watch--the chart was essential to making good choices. Faid asked me to wait while he researched the question. I guess he either called someone in the U.S. or he clicked around and finally found it. At any rate, eventually (15 minutes later) he came back on the line and walked me through the steps to get to the calculator which was named something other than the perky video reference.
I used the rate calculator. I had to do some more online research, but eventually I was able to get my husband to the website and he finally, 3 days later, was able to complete his enrollment. Now, on to my own sign up experience. I have two different websites to navigate. First, I had to create a different user name and password--which I have inconveniently forgotten--and then I had to figure where to click to enroll. By the time I got all of this down pat, it was past my bed time so I put it all aside with the intention of coming back to it today. I've finally found the place to enroll on the website, but I've forgotten the username and password. I'm thinking I'll just go with whatever the default is and keep my fingers crossed this year. That will buy me some time to figure out what I need to do next year.
Lest I forget--in the middle of all of this I provided assistance to my best friend who couldn't figure out how to enroll in her plan either. She had tried the links to identify the doctors, drugs, and pharmacies. The drug list was the only one that worked for her. I finally got her to the doctor list, but the participating pharmacies document is blank except for the headers, or it could be there are no pharmacies in her plan. Who knows. By the time we got the rest of it figured out (not including the pharmacies list), I was wondering where the death panel is when you really need them.
The Obamacare website might be problematic, but only by some ludicrous stretch of the imagination can private health insurers be considered even marginally better, and I've had the experiences to prove it.
