Were you successful in the ACA signup

[sengsational]

Made the Payment for 3/1 Start

Milestone reached! Paid the first month's premium!

Having a 22 year old child who may or may not need to file their own tax return in 2014, and an 18 year old that is still considered a child complicated things. The ACA site wanted to split them off into separate plan (22yo) or onto the state/local Medicaid (18yo). Gory details here: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f38/aca-and-college-aged-kids-70341.html

But by raising my income to around 230% of FPL, and saying that since before the 'life event' when Ms 22 will only earn $1000 (no tax return required), I got 'em all on the one policy with a nice subsidy!

 

[MichaelB]

Nice!

 

[audreyh1]

Just got a refund check from BCBSTX today. When I saw my enrollment looked successful in late December and I couldn't pay with my bank account on the website, I paid January's premium by credit card on December 28 and ate a $9.95 charge for it. (Normally I wouldn't do that but given the potential stakes I wanted something that gave me proof and confirmation that I paid.)

The letter I got today said the vendor processing these payments "voluntarily" waived their fee for January payments and a check for $9.95 is sitting on my desk now....

(I paid for February with a mailed check a few days ago and it already posted to my account. Looks like we're finally stabilizing.)

They got the pay on-line from bank account thing working very recently. DH was able to pay that way on Monday 2/3.

It didn't work for me one week prior, so I opted to do a bill pay from my bank using the member number as it was shown on my invoice. It was credited to my account a couple of days after the scheduled payment, so clearly that works also.

DH also got the refund check for the wrong Jan draft on his old policy.

 

[explanade]

So has everyone who's enrolled in the ACA been covered since the start of the year?

If not, is it due to the state they live in?

 

[brewer12345]

So has everyone who's enrolled in the ACA been covered since the start of the year?

If not, is it due to the state they live in?

Policy start date for me was 2/1 because I had (former) employer coverage until 1/31.

 

[explanade]

It would be interesting to have a poll in a couple of months, to see how the ACA policies are faring, like provider choice and such.

 

[sengsational]

So has everyone who's enrolled in the ACA been covered since the start of the year?

If not, is it due to the state they live in?

I started working on the signup on 1/25, the day after my employer HI ended. I got done before 2/15, so have a 3/1 'go-live'. So me and mine are ridin' dirty for about 35 days, but I've got the COBRA card to play, should something big come up. So far only a flu shot during the blackout period.

 

[AllDone]

We paid for January in mid-December by phone, but were not able to pay on-line until yesterday. We are now paid up for January and February and have auto-pay arranged.

 

[explanade]

We paid for January in mid-December by phone, but were not able to pay on-line until yesterday. We are now paid up for January and February and have auto-pay arranged.

Were you able to browse the providers before you selected a policy?

Presuming you went through coveredca.com, since San Diego is listed as your location?

 

[scrabbler1]

Two things happened with my ACA in the last 24 hours. First, I finally received a premium notice for my new policy. Unfortunately, it and the February premium check I mailed out last week crossed in the mail, so the bill was for both the "missing" February premium and the March premium, the latter I expected.

Second, I got a call from a BCBS rep. She told me she was going to print out the Welcome Package and mail it to me right away. While I had her on the phone, I told her about the premium notice I just got and the check I had mailed out last week. We agreed that I would wait another week or two until I saw the February premium check clear my own checking account, then mail out my March premium. There was a mysterious 4-cent outstanding balance, caused perhaps by an incorrect original premium amount I was given. I told the rep I would simply subtract whatever I paid from the outstanding amount to resolve any tiny differences. She was fine with that.

Making progess slowly, one step at a time.......

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Last Friday, not having received a bill for February 2014, I logged into Anthem and finally found an invoice posted there. WOW! I printed it out and sent off my payment for February and March, for which they had prepared the invoice.

I checked this morning, and the check has not been cashed. I was not worried.

Then in today's mail, I received that invoice, due 2/1/14, which I've already paid.

And then I logged into Anthem and got the following message:

Pay My Bill
Your health plan was purchased through a health insurance marketplace (also called an exchange), not directly from Anthem.

To pay your bill, or for other billing questions, please contact the health insurance marketplace where you purchased your health plan.


How can I contact the marketplace/exchange?

You can call the local health insurance marketplace at

Email the local health insurance marketplace at

Go to the local health insurance marketplace website at

No phone numbers or websites included in the above.

We're not done with this yet, are we?

Oh, and when I checked to see which hospital(s) we would use in case we need one, there was none listed within 100 miles. Should I be worried?

 

[explanade]

Could you see the providers before you signed up?

I can't imagine no providers in the Bay Area.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Could you see the providers before you signed up?

I can't imagine no providers in the Bay Area.

I saw a few doctors, not our own, nor did I see our local hospitals. I just figured it was yet another website problem back then.

I looked last week and did just a hospital search and found nothing; however, I will try again.

 

[explanade]

A lot of insurers offered lower rates to medical providers for these ACA plans and a lot of them declined the lower rates.

But if that means all the doctors and hospitals in a major metropolitan area dropped out of ACA plans and all you can do is go to some smaller cities far away from the Bay Area, I would think there would be a huge outcry.

I haven't looked at coveredca.com yet so I'll be curious to see if my provider is there.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

A lot of insurers offered lower rates to medical providers for these ACA plans and a lot of them declined the lower rates.

But if that means all the doctors and hospitals in a major metropolitan area dropped out of ACA plans and all you can do is go to some smaller cities far away from the Bay Area, I would think there would be a huge outcry.

I haven't looked at coveredca.com yet so I'll be curious to see if my provider is there.

I just looked again on DH's laptop, using Firefox instead of Safari. The site looked somewhat different, I wasn't punted off to pay via the exchange, and best of all, I found the hospital down the street IS in the network. What a relief!

 

[scrabbler1]

Two things happened with my ACA in the last 24 hours. First, I finally received a premium notice for my new policy. Unfortunately, it and the February premium check I mailed out last week crossed in the mail, so the bill was for both the "missing" February premium and the March premium, the latter I expected.

Second, I got a call from a BCBS rep. She told me she was going to print out the Welcome Package and mail it to me right away. While I had her on the phone, I told her about the premium notice I just got and the check I had mailed out last week. We agreed that I would wait another week or two until I saw the February premium check clear my own checking account, then mail out my March premium. There was a mysterious 4-cent outstanding balance, caused perhaps by an incorrect original premium amount I was given. I told the rep I would simply subtract whatever I paid from the outstanding amount to resolve any tiny differences. She was fine with that.

Making progess slowly, one step at a time.......

Yay! I received the welcome package, finally. The February premium check has not cleared yet, so I won't be paying my March premium yet but there is sitll time for that. The welcome package does not include a list of area doctors or hospitals, I have to go on line for that. Not a big deal.

 

[sengsational]

I got a 'thank you for submitting your application...' letter from BCBSNC after working through the healthcare.gov site (many tries). But the letter said "...please return the Initial Payment Form...", and then, later, "Please disregard this notice if you have recently paid...". Geeze. They should know. I paid with credit card online. When I try to log into the BCBS NC site, it says I can only do so after my policy effective date (March 1).

 

[pb4uski]

Not yet, but in Vermont our 2013 HDHI policy was extended for 3 months so until the end of March I have the same plan and rates as 2013.

I am trying to get a federal exemption certificate so I can purchase catastrophic coverage (even though we are older than 30). The feds issued the form just before Christmas. I filled it out and sent it to the feds. It is pretty clear that I will qualify because 1) our 2013 plan is being eliminated and 2) the lowest cost bronze level plan exceeds 8% of our projected income.

The feds erroneously sent my application for an exemption certificate to my state exchange. My state exchange has sorted it out with the feds and sent the federal exemption certificate application back to the feds for processing. Still waiting but I have been away from home for a month so it may be in my mail pile.

I'll be back home in a couple weeks and sort it out in March. If it works my 2014 premiums will be $200/month lower than what I currently pay and $250/month lower than the lowest cost bronze plan and the benefits are substantially similar.

BTW, I was lucky and was put in contact with a higher level person at the state exchange who has been tremendously helpful in sorting this whole thing out. OTOH, the feds seem like Keystone Cops and are totally clueless in my experience.

 

[Rpharmer]

I enrolled through Healthcare.gov in October, with BCBSKC, and received phone calls, welcome packet and card in November. Paid the first premium in December (just called BC and did it over the phone, because their site couldn't handle 2014 billing periods just yet.) I'm now on auto-pay, where BC bills my Discover at the end of each month.

The insurance has worked well, at the pharmacy, my PCP, and a dermatologist (for some basal cell removals.) And, I had my first colonoscopy this week -- covered now as a screening procedure. But, if the path reports show any polyps were malignant, follow-up treatment will be covered @ 90% of allowables, with a $500 out-of-pocket max, most of which I've already met. (I was able to qualify for significant premium and cost-sharing reductions, because most of my assets and "income" are sheltered in IRAs -- I do small Roth conversions as needed...) So, the added bonus is that when MRD time comes, my taxes will be much lower, too.

The initial enrollment process did require a lot of patience, but it was worth it. This site was very helpful, so thanks!

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

I successfully signed up in Dec after a few fails.

We're quite happy with our plan and the unsubsidized cost.

 

[TimSF]

Signed up online last week at coveredca.org. Waiting for my welcome package to arrive in the mail.

 

[scrabbler1]

Yay! I received the welcome package, finally. The February premium check has not cleared yet, so I won't be paying my March premium yet but there is sitll time for that. The welcome package does not include a list of area doctors or hospitals, I have to go on line for that. Not a big deal.

February premium check cleared. I sent out the check for the March premium, taking care of the small balance resulting from paying the wrong premium in January and Febrary. This puts me up to date now!

 

[John Galt III]

Successfully used the new subsidized health ins, for some blood tests. Only cost me $10.75. Spent forever trying to be sure that all the tests would be covered, and ended up rolling the dice and just getting the tests done, and it worked out fine. I was a bit worried about the way I canceled my old policy. I used the "just stop paying the premium" method, which an ins agent had suggested. I wanted to be able to reinstate the old policy during the grace period, if necessary. To my relief, the old policy was canceled without any penalty or hoopla.

 

[TimSF]

Signed up online last week at coveredca.org. Waiting for my welcome package to arrive in the mail.

Here's an update. After waiting two weeks for my welcome package and invoice to arrive, I started to get nervous because I am currently uninsured and really wanted to be covered starting March 1. I tried calling the Covered California help line several times, but the wait times were too long. I also tried accessing the website, which has been down "for maintenance" for several days. So... I decided to take matters into my own hands and call the insurance company with which I signed up on the exchange, Kaiser Permanente. I got thru right away and spoke with a helpful young woman named Margaret. She explained that currently it has been taking about 4-6 WEEKS for completed applications to be processed. However, she reassured me that I would be covered as of March 1, even though I will have not received my invoice from KP by. She gave me the option also of sending in a check to KP even before the invoice arrives. I am going to do that.
Despite serious glitches in the online exchange system, KP really came through. What a relief.
Oh ... and I am going to save about $1000 a month on insurance premiums from my prior COBRA payment!

 

[explanade]

Is KP cheaper than most other providers?