Washington State Health Exchange

[Spokane2303]

Day 3 and the WA State Health Exchange website seems to be up and operational.

I was able to setup an account for DW and myself this afternoon and got both of us verified. WA state seems to be using Transunion for ID verification as they asked the same personal questions that Transunion did when I lifted our credit freeze this morning in preparation for the anticipated probe by the Health Exchange. I lifted freezes at all three credit bureaus not knowing which would be checked.

Once our ID's were verified, we were instructed to submit verification of our income. The website provided a list of suggested forms to submit as proof. Unfortunately none of these forms pertained to us as we're living off of our interest/dividends/savings and plan to control our total yearly income through ongoing Roth IRA conversions. So I put together estimated 2014 personal income verification statements for each of us and submitted these online to the exchange. (scanned/saved forms can be submitted easily online through your WA exchange account)

Now we'll wait for a response to learn if we need to submit addition income verification forms; or, hopefully, our subsidy level so that we can proceed to select our carrier.

So far the most difficult part of this whole endeavor has been lifting our credit freezes and putting together the personal income verification statements!

 

[MichaelB]

It'll be interesting to see how this proceeds. Keep us informed!

 

[donheff]

I am curious about the supporting states in general. DC's exchange is a bit fluky but I was able to easily browse plans and, I suspect, it would be easy to purchase one (I am not eligible and thus can't try it). On the other hand, Virginia (where I have a second home) has been impossible to labor through. It is relying on the Federal Exchange which appears to be a disaster of poor design/implementation so I assume all the Federally supported states are in the same boat. It would be easy to tisk tisk that those states got what they asked for but the the availability of a Federal Exchange for states that couldn't handle it (even in good faith) was part of the law. The mess at the Federal Exchange is undermining the law's success. Someone's head should fall. That said, I still come down on the side of moving forward and not delaying. The interest/demand/need is clearly high and there is time available in the open season to fix things.

 

[woodguy00]

Washington's exchange is quite good for browsing available plans for features, costs, deductibles, etc. at various income levels without actually applying. Has anyone been successful doing this on the federal run exchanges ? I'd like to see actual plans available in Arkansas, another of my target retirement destinations.

 

[Sue J]

My experience using the federal exchange is that you can't see any plan info or subsidy info until you submit your application and that can't be done until your ID is verified. When I spoke to Experian today they verified my ID but my account at www.healthcare.gov still shows unverified. The guy at Experian said he thought just about everyone gets stuck at the ID verification stage.

I wish my state (Ohio) was doing their own exchange. It sounds like people in states with their own exchanges have much easier access to info on plans and subsidies.

 

[donheff]

My experience using the federal exchange is that you can't see any plan info or subsidy info until you submit your application and that can't be done until your ID is verified. When I spoke to Experian today they verified my ID but my account at www.healthcare.gov still shows unverified. The guy at Experian said he thought just about everyone gets stuck at the ID verification stage.

I wish my state (Ohio) was doing their own exchange. It sounds like people in states with their own exchanges have much easier access to info on plans and subsidies.

I suspect the requirement to set up an account and verify before browsing is half their problem. It requires heavy lifting and is slowing everything down.

 

[Spokane2303]

Washington State Update

After receiving two e-mail eligibility notifications from WA state related to AppleHealth, WA States expanded Medicaid program, that our income was too high to qualify (which was our intent!), our self attested income couldn't be verified which resulted in our application being in limbo for the past 18 days. So I endured a 23 minute hold this am to discuss with a call center specialist. (The two individuals that I've talked to over the last 18 days at the state call center have been the most helpful and polite people I've ever encounter - I commend the state for their workforce for this function!)

Anyway, because I'd marked on the original health insurance application that we currently have insurance (Cobra), which the call center representative said should only have been a yes if we planned to keep it in 2014, and because I'd reported our interest income under the dividend question, our application was stuck in computer limbo. The support person asked me if I planned to keep my Cobra policy into 2014 (no!) and changed that answer on my application. Then he asked about my dividend income. I told him it was taxable interest and that I'd reported it under dividends as the application form had no selection available to report this type of income. He removed this income, our income verification was then confirmed with their verification check and we were instantly enrolled into AppleHealth (which we'd been trying to avoid)

So at this point we have succeeded in securing health insurance coverage for 2014.

Since our current MDs are covered by AppleHealth, we'll just give this a try for now.

Can't say we didn't try to stay off the expanded Medicaid! They just couldn't accept our intent to derive income through a Roth IRA conversions until it actually occurs in 2014! So we'll delay our 2014 Roth Conversions until we see see how well this insurance coverage works for us.

To be safe, I've maintained detailed notes of both my call center conversations and copies of all of our submitted self income verification documents for 2014.

 

[NoMoreJob]

If it were me, I'd dispute the determination and NOT accept Medicaid. Just because your current doctors accept it doesn't mean that the doctors you may need or want to see will (i.e. specialists) and there's no way to know that ahead of time.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/sto...-of-medicaid-doctors-say-no-new-patients.aspx

With effort and patience I'm sure there's a way to escalate the determination to a level that someone understands pretty basic things like interest vs. dividend income and Roth conversions.