{"id":805,"date":"2013-10-18T19:19:10","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T02:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/?p=805"},"modified":"2013-11-08T22:19:46","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T05:19:46","slug":"my-experience-with-obamacare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/18\/my-experience-with-obamacare\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience with Obamacare"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been trying to apply for health insurance on the Federal Exchange<\/a> (which Arizona uses) since it went online. It’s been a struggle!<\/p>\n

The website is buggy and not ready for the usage it has been seeing. My big problem was that I started an application for just myself, and then after getting part way through I tried to use the option to “Add another applicant”. It went nowhere. The link\/button did absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n

So for two weeks I’ve been periodically logging in to see if the ability to add another user has been fixed, without success. And then just yesterday I started having another problem. Before I could even get to the page to add Gisele, I started getting a popup that my immigration status documentation was invalid (Huh?). I tried calling, but they couldn’t help me. They just suggested I either buy over the phone (no way; I want to see details and compare options), or just keep trying and hopefully that bug will get fixed.<\/p>\n

So finally today, brilliant brainstorm! I started a new application in Gisele’s name. This time I included both of us in the initial application and things went pretty well. Slow, but I was able to complete the application. So my half-finished app is still sitting there in limbo, but I don’t think that matters.<\/p>\n

Having applied for insurance about 10 years ago, I really appreciated the simplicity of the new application. The only health-related questions you have to answer are your age and whether or not you smoke. The last time I applied I had to submit a complete health history of every organ and system in my body, listing any visits to see a doctor about any specific problems over that past 10 years. <\/p>\n

So OK, now I am signed up and can view the available insurance options. There were 111 plans available for us, with the cheapest about $750 for the two of us and going up to over $2000. Obviously I want in on the lower end. <\/p>\n

I’ve narrowed it down to two plans, one from Aetna and one from BCBS. We already have BCBS and have been happy with them so we’re leaning that way, but we’ll sleep on it a few days.<\/p>\n

The plans I am looking at are about the same monthly premium as my current plan. They have a higher deductible, but on the other hand there is no lifetime maximum and my pre-existing condition is completely covered, unlike before. Copays are in the same ballpark. So all in all it’s a reasonable upgrade. I do have the option to keep my old grandfathered plan, but I think getting complete coverage and no lifetime maximum is worthwhile.<\/p>\n

One thing I would point out if you are curious about the plans but unable or unwilling to apply to the exchanges, you can go directly to the insurance companies’ webpages and view all their eligible plans there. Just be sure to select a plan that goes into effect Jan 1, 2014 to be sure you are looking at the new ACA-approved plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been trying to apply for health insurance on the Federal Exchange (which Arizona uses) since it went online. It’s been a struggle! The website is buggy and not ready for the usage it has been seeing. My big problem was that I started an application for just myself, and then after getting part way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-updates","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}