I have been a member of this site for 10 years, a lifelong democrat, and one of the champions of the healthcare laws Obama put into place. Now I am finding myself on the wrong side of bureaucracy. I just turned 26 (yes, I've been a member since I was 16!). This meant that I was dropped from my fathers insurance on my birthday. I signed up for Obamacare over the phone, got all of my IDs ready, and was told that I was enrolled effective September 1st. What has happened since has been a nightmare.
I have always thought I might have heart problems. After all, it runs in my family. My uncle had his first heart attack at 30. The rest of them are either dead or have already had bypass surgery. My dad began having his high blood pressure in his 40s, late for our family! I didn't practice the most healthy things myself in my early college... I was an invincible 18-21 year old, after all. I'm partially paying the price for that now, but with my genetics already loading the gun.
Well, with my change in health care coming up, I knew I was going to have to become a "real adult." I selected my first healthcare plan and, though I've been having chest pains and a fuzzy feeling in my head, knew that the 10 day lapse in insurance wouldn't be a problem for me whatsoever. All I had to do was make sure that no problems arose between then and September 1st and everything would be taken care of after that - my silver plan looks like a dream come true! Cost sharing, cheap enrollment, low premiums, subsidies... I was so confident that I was going into this without a care in the world and all of my medical problems would be taken care of.
Then it hit me. A doctor diagnosed me with high blood pressure after I messed up my thumb. The reading was 159/100, and he asked me about it. I told him every doctor has been asking me about that since I was 24. He said that was a problem and had me monitor my blood pressure. I had been getting symptoms of high blood pressure, something that doesn't tend to happen unless your blood pressure is VERY high. As a 26 year old, there is no reason for me to have high blood pressure, even with my genetics.
So I began home monitoring. I noticed that I was consistently hypertensive. 140/90 was my baseline, but my spikes would be much higher. I knew something was very wrong a few weeks ago when after doing basic heavy lifting, I had to sit down because I was about to pass out. There was a pounding in my head and my head started feeling very fuzzy. I pulled out my blood pressure cuff and told my friend that I had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and I wasn't feeling well, so he could be on hand. My BP? 170/120. I was having a hypertensive crisis.
I rested, because I knew I didn't have health insurance, and just let it pass. After a few drinks of water and absolutely relaxing, the numbers started going down. I settled at 150/90 and at least knew I wasn't in immediate danger. I stopped lifting for the rest of the day and called my father, who told me to go to the doctor without insurance and get on some blood pressure medicine. I have since been on Losartan, the cheapest the doctor could find until I get my insurance taken care of.
However, this guy is just the doctor at my student health clinic at graduate school. I need to see a specialist, I need to see a cardiologist, and I need to figure out why my blood pressure is spiking and I'm getting pains and weird sensations. This is where my woes with healthcare.gov come in.
September 1st, I call the provider that healthcare.gov signed me up with. They tell me that they have no record of who I am. I call healthcare.gov and they said they sent my information over. I do this back and forth over the next few days until September 4th comes along and they say that they are beginning an escalation and that it may take 30 days. I worry... but they say everything that happens is retroactive and that anything that I am charged with, the healthcare company will have to cover via insurance and that I am indeed enrolled as of September 1st.
I call my healthcare company a week later. September 8th. Still no record of me. They asked me for this ID that I had never been given, an AP ID (different from an "834 enrollment ID"). Trust me, I have learned every ID that is part of healthcare.gov by now. Nobody had ever given me this ID. Thus, I called healthcare.gov again to ask for that ID. They said that my insurance company should have everything, but gave me my ID. I called the insurance company and gave them the ID... no record of me. They said they'd call me back on Friday.
September 15th. I call the insurance company again. They still have no record of me. I call healthcare.gov, and the guy says that the previous "escalation" may have been filed incorrectly and that the best he could do is re-enroll me or file another escalation, which may take another 30 days. I groan. Meanwhile, my blood pressure is barely under control and I need to see a specialist. I started feeling other symptoms, and I begin having panic attacks... see, I have panic disorder too, and one of the things I was really excited for was finally getting to see a psych to evaluate the medicines I've been on since I was 18. No help. Both of them said they would call me back by Friday. Neither of them did.
I just got off of the phone with both my insurance company and healthcare.gov today, and the general gist of it all is "Sorry. You're screwed by bureaucracy." The lady told me that the previous case file (the first escalation) was closed. How did they "resolve" my problem? Literally, the only thing in the "resolution" section was "The company indicated they spoke to Mr. beholderseye." I was infuriated. Nobody had spoken with me, and even if they had, the issue has never been whether or not I was speaking with my insurance company - trust me, I've been doing that multiple times a week! The issue is that as of September 25th, I still do not have insurance. I quickly asked the lady on the phone who they spoke to with my health insurance agency - she said that no name was put down. I couldn't even call my health insurance company (I say "my" health insurance company, even though I technically don't even have one yet because I'm not covered) to figure out who supposedly spoke with me and resolved my issue!
I feel betrayed, dailykos. I was one of Obamacare's biggest supporters. Its part of the reason I took part in electing Obama. Now my dad wants me to see a cardiologist, his cardiologist. My entire family is republican (I live in Louisiana), and I lied and told him that my coverage starts October 1st. At this point, I'm not even sure my coverage DOES start in October 1st - October 15th is when this next escalation ends and I have no faith that they will fix anything. Meanwhile, with my problems progressing, there is every chance that I have something very wrong with me and I need immediate emergency care. The people at Healthcare.gov told me that I could sign up again and be eligible for October 1st with a new application, but I told them no - at least with the current application, I've got retroactivity, something that one of the few really good people at healthcare.gov told me during one of the phone calls and something that every one of them has confirmed. I don't want to be rushed to the hospital in the next 7 days and not have that retroactive coverage to protect me - and unfortunately, this is a distinct possibility.
I also don't want to admit to my father that he was "right about Obamacare." The second this gets out to my family, I'll never be able to defend anything related to healthcare and the government again.
But I don't even care about that the most right now...
All I care about is this: I want my health insurance, and I can't seem to get it.