Today’s call with the Health Insurance Marketplace call center at 9:45 a.m. (less than 48 hours after the Obama administration let us know that healthcare.gov is working for a “vast majority of users”):
Me: “Hi – this is my sixth call to figure out how to unlock my account so I can complete the enrollment. I was told last week they would go into my account, fix some “glitch” and it would be ready to go. It isn’t.”
Call center: “Did you clear your cookies?”
Me: “What? Why?”
Call center: “Sometimes clearing your cookies helps.”
Me: “It unlocks my account in your system? That doesn’t seem right.”
Call center: “I’m just offering a suggestion.”
Me: “Shouldn’t you look at my account to see what the issue is before offering possible solutions?”
Call center: “I would, but I can’t access any accounts right now.”
Me: “Mine or any?”
Call center: “Any.”
Me: “You mean the system is down?”
Call center: “Yes.”
Me: “So there’s really no need for us to talk.”
Call center: “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Me: “…”
I wonder if there’s a separate healthcare.gov system for the “vast majority of users.”
Update: Now I can’t even log in to my account, even though I’m using the same username and password I have for weeks. I hit the reset password button - and it hasn’t sent me the promised email.
I’m beginning to suspect everything isn’t fixed, despite what Pravda the New York Times editorial page has to say on the matter:
Fast recovery indeed.
After much delay and with little confidence, I hit the enroll button at healthcare.gov this morning.
It went about as you would expect. Here are the highlights of the step-by-step continuing disaster detailed below:
- I finally clicked “Enroll.” Healthcare.gov was glitchy and couldn’t confirm it went through.
- The website then said my application is incomplete, but it is locked.
- Live chat directed me to call center.
- Call center can’t even find me (then did after discovering it listed my 8-year-old son as the head of household).
- Call center can’t access my application because of website glitches.
- Call center directs me to insurer.
- Insurer says they won’t know for 3-6 weeks. Six weeks is after cutoff to ensure coverage on 1/1.
- Oh, I can’t keep my dentist.
If you want the full blow by blow, read on …
Upon clicking “Enroll,” the blue wheel spun for a moment and presented me with this screen:
My next step, according to this, is “For.”
Well that certainly clears it up - and I’m feeling good about using my new insurance on January 1!
Just to be sure, I went back to my account to make sure my enrollment had been completed and submitted.
Um, no:
Ugh. So I clicked “Resume Enrollment,” which took me here:
Oddly, it is referring to my wife as “Rebecca Jackson” rather than listing all four of our names (Rebecca, Jackson, Cooper and Anthony). That forced me to go back in and make sure it hadn’t attempted to enroll just three of us.
It hadn’t. Healthcare.gov is just bad at grammar.
As you see, the “review and confirm your coverage” is locked - and you’ll see that I didn’t pick a dental plan because I had the following conversation this morning with my dentist’s business manager:
"I have never heard of any of these plans," she said of the plans offered in South Jersey.
"None?"
"None."
"What should I do?"
"Call another company."
Does anyone know if Obama said, “If you like your dentist, you can keep your dentist. Period.”?
Anyway, I’m now stuck, so - in a fit of weakness - I clicked on this:
Here’s how it went:
It optimistically told me that I would be chatting “with someone who can help.” I’m guessing not.
Here is the transcript with “someone who can help”:
[10:09:27 am]: Thanks for contacting Health Insurance Marketplace Live Chat. Please wait while we connect you to someone who can help.
[10:09:33 am]: Please be patient while we’re helping other people.
[10:09:47 am]: Welcome! You’re now connected to Health Insurance Marketplace Live Chat.
Thanks for contacting us. My name is Phillip. To protect your privacy, please don’t provide any personal information, like Social Security Number, or any other sensitive medical or personal information.
[10:10:08 am]: Phillip How may I help you?
[10:11:01 am]: Tony Hi - I attempted to complete enrollment today, but it said my enrollment was not complete - though the Review and Confirm Your Coverage Button is locked. What do I need to do?
[10:11:25 am]: Phillip Hi
[10:11:39 am]: Tony Hi
[10:11:39 am]: Phillip I apologize for the inconvenience.
[10:11:54 am]: Phillip Thank you. One moment please while I look that up.
[10:12:46 am]: Phillip English- and Spanish-speaking customer service representatives at 1-800-318-2596 can answer your Marketplace questions.
[10:13:20 am]: Phillip The call center can help you compare and enroll in plan.
[10:13:52 am]: Tony That isn’t what I asked, though. I don’t need to compare. I have already done that. I need to know why it is locked.
[10:14:14 am]: Phillip Thank you. One moment please while I look that up.
[10:15:17 am]: Phillip We apologize for any technical difficulties you may be experiencing as you use HealthCare.gov. We know this can be frustrating, and we’re working around the clock to improve HealthCare.gov and to make sure your experience with it is a positive one. I will make a note of your feedback.
[10:15:58 am]: Tony I didn’t provide feedback. I asked a question.
[10:17:16 am]: Phillip I would call call center they can look at your account I can’t see your account in chat.
[10:17:36 am]: Tony OK, so you can’t help? Thank you.
[10:17:45 am]: Phillip Thank you for contacting Health Insurance Marketplace Live Chat. We are here to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
[10:18:01 am]: 'Phillip' has left the chat session.
[10:18:01 am]: Tony Um…
[10:18:05 am]: Your chat session is over. Thanks for contacting us, and we hope we’ve answered your questions. Have a great day.
Well.
With little confidence, I turned to the call center. Sometimes I do my ATM transactions in Spanish to increase the degree of difficulty, but - given how hard this has been - I’m going to try English to start.
Here’s how that conversation went:
Encouragingly, I got right through to speak with a very pleasant and helpful call center representative. I explained the problems I was having, while she let me know open enrollment closes March 31.
She collected my name, address, Social Security number, date of birth and … couldn’t find me in the system under my name.
After some digging, she figured out why. Healthcare.gov didn’t list me as the primary applicant, even though I have filled out all of the paperwork.
Instead, my 8-year-old son was listed as the primary applicant - and the representative said, “We need to get his authorization for me to access any more information about this account.”
"Well, he’s an 8-year-old who is preparing for a test right now at school, so I’m guessing we won’t be able to get that authorization."
"Oh, OK," she said.
After I was able to confirm his date of birth, she attempted to access my account … and couldn’t.
Why?
"Glitches," she said, adding, "We apologize for any technical difficulties you may be experiencing as you use HealthCare.gov. We know this can be frustrating, and we’re working around the clock to improve HealthCare.gov and to make sure your experience with it is a positive one."
That’s what Phillip said, word for word.
She again apologized for being unable to see my account and told me I should have received information on the final screen providing details and next steps about how to pay for my insurance. Instead, she very politely directed me to AmeriHealth to see if the application went through - and to call the call center back if it didn’t.
I called AmeriHealth, where the very helpful representative told me they wouldn’t know if the application went through for “three to six weeks” and I should call back sometime then.
Doing the math, that means the soonest I will know if my application went through would be December 4. The back end? Christmas.
And I have to be signed up by December 15 to guarantee coverage by January 1.
Heckuva job, guys. Heckuva job.
An article of faith among some supporters of the Affordable Care Act is that its launch has been a train wreck in part because of Republican opposition to the law.
They contrast the GOP obstruction with how Democrats wholeheartedly supported the Medicare prescription drug benefit largely passed by Republicans during the Bush administration.
For example, Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana noted in this msnbc.com story:
What’s preventing the Affordable Care Act form getting off the ground like Medicare Part D, however, is the Republican Party’s refusal to stand-by the program, said the Democratic senator.
“Democrats who by and large did not vote for [Part D], after it was passed said, ‘Look we got to make it work,’” said Breaux. “Now you see Republicans fighting it tooth and nail even though it’s now the law of the land.”
If only that were true.
Democrats in Congress were so aggravated by the passage and coming implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit that they sought a Government Accounting Office investigation of television ads promoting the new prescription drug benefit to seniors. They even asked television networks to refuse HHS-produced ads informing seniors about the law and a stopgap prescription savings card – accusing the Bush administration of playing politics in an election year.
Their objection? Claims in the 30-second ad that told Medicare beneficiaries that Medicare wasn’t changing – except to provide additional benefits, as this February 2004 New York Times story notes:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — CBS said on Friday that it had stopped running a television advertisement for the new Medicare prescription drug law while Congress investigates its accuracy.
The 30-second advertisement, prepared by the Bush administration, assures Medicare beneficiaries that the program is not changing in any way except to provide “more benefits.” Democratic members of Congress and some liberal advocacy groups say the advertisement amounts to a taxpayer-subsidized political commercial for the administration.
Dana McClintock, a spokesman for CBS in New York, said: “The ad has been pulled. It violated our longstanding policy on advocacy advertising. We pulled it as soon as we became aware of the investigation.”
In other words, the ad said seniors could keep their Medicare plan if they liked it – which happened to be true (unlike this time around).
The effort to pull the ads was led by then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Rep. Rosa DeLauro in the House and Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the Senate.
All of the networks ignored the request to pull the ads – except CBS, which briefly took the ad down as the Times story above details.
One other thing about that: The decision to pull the ads at CBS was made by Martin Franks, an executive vice president at the network who decided such things.
That, of course, is the same Martin Franks who worked with Rahm Emanuel in Rep. Tony Coehlo’s office in the 1980s.
Politics indeed.
Last week, the House Energy and Commerce committee held the first of what is likely to be many hearings on how the rollout of Healthcare.gov went so wrong. Today, the House Ways and Means Committee takes its turn with scheduled testimony from Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Healthcare.gov.
Here’s what you need to know:
Since October 1, I have logged on to various websites across the Internet to book three flights, make hotel reservations in four cities, buy a pair of boots, some t-shirts and a set of nifty retro Mason jars.
What I haven’t bought: health insurance through healthcare.gov.
Nor have I tried, even after being able to (finally) create an account and see the prices on specific plans offered here in South Jersey, after weeks of frustration.
Here’s why: Given my family’s initial experience in setting up an account and the horror stories that continue to pour out day by day, we simply have no faith that the system will work if we attempt to sign up. And, given the bungling to date, we are not confident our insurance will be there January 1 – even if we are able to Whac-A-Mole our way through the registration process.
Think about it this way: If you really need to get to Miami, would you attempt to buy a plane ticket on a sketchy site that may or may not sell you a ticket that may or may not be waiting for you for a plane that may or may not be there when you get to the airport on the travel day?
Of course not. Nor are we comfortable relying on healthcare.gov, 1-800 numbers, navigators or parchment to sign up for health insurance through the federal exchange at this point.
Given our lack of confidence in the system and the administration’s ability to sort it out in a timely manner, our plan is to wait and see - which causes some complications on the back end for our health care needs.
What is all the more galling is the continued tone-deafness of the communications coming from the administration – from President Obama to Secretary Sebelius to the HHS communications shop. The way they speak about this makes it clear that they simply do not understand the minute-to-minute, day-to-day frustrations and longterm problems it is causing for the very people they are counting on to sign up.
President Obama insists that the signup process will work – if only we don’t go to the website that he and his team spent months telling us to go to.
Secretary Sebelius insists she’s on the job – even though she says she didn’t bother to tell her boss this whole debacle was coming and she doesn’t work for anybody who thinks she may need to step aside.
And the HHS communications shop (my former employer)? Well, they continue to shift the goal posts and defend the indefensible:
BIG NEWS: By the end of Nov., the vast majority of users will be able to move smoothly and successfully through @HealthCareGov
— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) October 25, 2013
FACT: In the first few days, very few could create an account on @HealthCareGov, we are now at an over 90% success rate.
— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) October 25, 2013
By the end of November? That isn’t BIG NEWS, folks; that is BAD NEWS.
And creating an account? Great. I can create an account, but can I buy insurance?
At this point, I don’t trust them enough to bother to find out.
While I can log in today without clearing cookies and whatnot, I cannot access my saved plans - even though it shows there are saved plans.
Also, I’m seeing a lot of this:
Getting closer, though (I think).
Good news, guys!
Awesome! The President is on the case! Or …
He must have been playing with web coder types at Fort Belvoir on Sunday.
Before and after pictures. As of today, healthcare.gov is now emphasizing the enroll-by-phone option.
Which is a very convenient option - in 1987!
Every day for the last 12 days, I’ve attempted to create an account and/or sign in to the healthcare.gov website. Every day, I have failed.
I’ll be back tomorrow, because … I’m just trying to sign up for health insurance.