Health Insurance Quest

Greetings friends! So what's the latest? Well, I'm on a mission to get new health insurance and so far it has been a rocky road. I've been getting insurance through the business section of the MA Health Connector. I received a letter last month saying that we had to reapply for insurance and a choose a new plan as of September 1. That sounded simple enough, but little did I know. I went online and had some issues even starting a new account-  I finally filled out the application and sent in the required paperwork to prove that we are a business. I received a phone 4:30 Friday afternoon- which is an odd time to make an important call- from the Health Connector saying that my paper work wasn't sufficient. They need a form that we don't fill out because it doesn't pertain to us as a non profit. I told the lady that the paperwork I had submitted was fine when we applied in 2012- I don't understand what had changed. She said first that I had applied with my "old number" instead of reapplying. I hadn't done that- I had filled out a new application and the computer generated a number. I had to do it twice for it to work. Then she said that the requirements to make a business eligible are now different and unless we could supply this form then we wouldn't be able to get business health insurance through the connector. Today, I went online to apply for individual insurance- I applied for premium assistance, but my application stalled early in the process and I kept getting a message saying they couldn't verify my identity. I then had to call their help number- which requires pressing many buttons until you get someone. The lady on the phone still wasn't able to verify my identity- she asked me if I had just moved. I've been living at the same address for 13 years. It's the only place that I've ever had my driver's license address at. I'm registered to vote here- it should be really easy for their system to be able to confirm that I live here. I had to mail in a copy of my driver's license and a document which has my address on it. She said that in a week it should be verified and then I can continue the next step in obtaining insurance.

It is frustrating to go through this process. Health insurance is expensive- there are so many plans to choose from- most of which have very little difference- and most of which are lousy plans. There are 3 levels of coverage (gold, silver, bronze) and within those levels there are 3 levels- and within those levels there are a bunch of different plans- and seriously, most of them are dreadful. They have high deductibles, some of them have a 30% co-pay which is outside of your deductible, others have high fees for any tests that you need- and they all cost serious money. The least they could do is make it a simple process. I don't understand why the business requirements had to change so that we're not eligible anymore. It amazes me to think that a number of people had to come up with this entire system and then other people had to approve the system- didn't someone take a moment and think about what a confusing mess it was? It is really dreadful. For the richest and most developed country in the world, it doesn't seem right that the health insurance system should be like this.

Anyways, that's my news for tonight. Hopefully, things will get straightened out and I can get good health insurance at a decent price. I'm covered until September 1 with my current business plan. On that note, I'm off to eat some more watermelon and read for a bit. Until tomorrow friends...