I have spent the past few days struggling to apply for insurance on California’s HIX, CoveredCA. Early on in the application process I tried to withhold judgment, but have since learned that coveredca.com has a price tag of $360M, awarded to Accenture. And so I am feeling decidedly less generous and have penned this short note. I hope that details of my experience can be of benefit to CoveredCA, Accenture, and anyone in the state considering applying for insurance.
System Slows to a Halt (Oct 9th)
I started out by checking a few news and twitter sources, which reported that the initial kinks with CoveredCA had been worked out. However when I began the application process the system was unbearably slow. I waited easily 30 seconds for every form submit. Eventually, I was presented with a cryptic error message when the system finally crashed: “Oracle Access Manager Operation Error”.
The (very nice) woman I spoke with at the CoveredCA call center confirmed that the site was down. However, this news was absolutely under-reported. There were a few tweets that noted the system failure, but that was it. Notably, @CoveredCA remained silent on the issue.
I gave up staring at the Oracle error message, and the next morning (Oct 10), logged back in at 5am thinking I would beat peak web traffic. At 5am the site was still down, this time for “scheduled maintenance”.
I eventually completed my application later in the day… overcoming several usability hurdles and bugs along the way… as detailed below:
Major Usability Issues Encountered
- Lack of login link. Why is their no login link on the landing page? It is completely non-intuitive to click “start” when I really want to just login and continue my application.
- Security questions gone wild. These were so bizarre. There were 5 different security questions with 5+ question dropdowns each. One example: “What is your funniest friend’s last name?”
- Children…are not adults. If a person has been identified as a child why am I still bombarded with adult-centric questions about that child, e.g. “has this person submitted a tax return.” Why should I ever be given the option to assign a child to be the parent of another child?
- Family relationships. There has to be a better way to identify family relationships than the all-permutations-approach used. I’m sure this problem has been long solved — what does TurboTax do here? CoveredCA and its partner Accenture seems to have completely ignored industry best practices.
- Going back and forward through application. It is absolutely unclear how to go “back and forth” in the application workflow easily.
- Family member health status. Absolutely weird UI for specifying how many family members have high healthcare/high medication needs — need to click plus (+) and minus (–) boxes.
- How do I verify my income? At one point in the application workflow, it was specified that I had to verify my income before I could fully qualify for health insurance. I still do not how I am supposed to do this — no instructions given and no email follow up.
Major Bugs Encountered
- Bug #1: editing previously entered data. After I was nearly done with the application process, I tried to edit some of my husband’s citizenship details. When I clicked the ‘edit’ button next to his name I was taken back to the wrong family member’s form. I could find no other way to edit my husband’s contact information.
- Bug #2: going “back” in application. After I was unsuccessful at editing my husband’s information, I was taken back several screens in the application and had to click “continue, continue, continue,… ” many times to get back to where I was. At this point I became resolute to never try to “go back” in the application process ever again.
- Bug #3: health plans search. When shopping for health plans I tried to search for health plans by both physician and hospital. I typed in “Kaiser”… and… no results found! Pretty shocking considering that Kaiser-Permanente is the largest, fully integrated insurer-provider in the country with headquarters in California. How could they miss this is beyond my imagination.
I am not one who wants to see CoveredCA fail, and I appreciated @CoveredCA responding to my tweets — albeit giving general assurances that the web team is “working on” the problems. I hope these problems can be resolved quickly (but doubt it).
Unfortunately, by spending $360 million of taxpayer dollars for Accenture consulting services and producing this kind of product, CoveredCA is giving plenty fodder to those that want HIX, and general healthcare reform, to fail. One really has to wonder, were those dollars well spent, and if there is any clause in the contract to hold Accenture’s feet to the fire until they get this fixed. Lastly, If anyone can tell me how I am supposed to verify my income then I would be much obliged.
For $360 million, Accenture should have produced a Web site as easy to use, intuitive and fast as Amazon.com. Hopefully, California’s Attorney General will pursue this obvious breach of contract as aggressively as she does more politically oriented issues.
I also want this to succeed, but have been extremely frustrated with the website. I got through the validation the first week, but was unable to enroll. Last week I could never get the site to log me in. I waited half an hour for the “Chat”, which gave random numbers for the time remaining, and when I was first in the queue finally, I was told no agents were available. I tried the Chat again later, and got no useful help (probably chatting with a computer program rather than a person). I still can’t log in, and get no response to emails. I still can’t log in today. Thank you for posting something, there seems to be no real news about the severe website implementation issues. And if it doesn’t work, they should put a notice on the website so people don’t waste their time trying to enroll until it is fixed.
Eric, yes I am very perplexed as to why there isn’t more news, more blog posts, on all the issues with CoveredCA. There is a little activity on twitter but not much.
Imagine being an agent! It’s complete failure. Oh, and once I enroll you, please don’t count on insurance. I have files missing on a weekly basis and no one has an answer. I feel like I am working for free and the public is paying the price with me. Sad really.
Funny, I was speaking to a CoveredCA polite lady just this morning and asked her how many complaints she received so far regarding their software (did not know it was by accenture) and she answered 1!
I have seen the same bugs that prompted meaningless Error Messages that locks one up from till the following day.
1. The city the applicant lives had the wrong County. Correct it and it Locks up with Error.
2. Editing any information previously entered, including spelling or too many zero’s. boom!
3. The software cannot differentiate an applicant under Cobra paid by applicant which is to expire by 2014 from an Employer medical coverage by spouse who is already retired and currently under Medicare. The system give a zero financial assistance. When the Customer Service calculates the information given manually, they confirm that it should have posted a discounted value. No one knows why. Applicant was advised to appeal. The application could not even be completed to date.
Thanks for the postings… stress reliever!
And thanks for chiming in with your own personal experiences Mel.
Bit of a mess right now and it is unfortunate that so much money has been wasted on far less than stellar performance from top tier consulting firms. Really makes one wonder what might have been accomplished with $100M and some highly talented engineers from the Bay area.
Pretty sad really.
I was able to register and log-in. However, I can’t get pass the second question. It asks me how many people are in my household and how I heard about the site. I do want this program to work so badly but it’s a bit frustrating. I think I am just going to print the pdf file and do it the old fashion way – hand write. After that, I will have to deal with whether my handwriting was deciphered properly.
In our efforts to digitize health, we seem to stumble far too often and ultimately resort to paper. Hardly the efficient promise of effective deployment and use of IT. Pretty sad state of affairs, especially considering how much has been spent to stand-up these health insurance exchanges.
Encase anyone also stumbled onto this webpage. If you’re trying to finish the “Household Members” portion where you’re only have one member, yourself, in the household/taxes, but the system refuse you to continue unless you give up some names…, just keep pressing the “remove member” button near the end of the page.
I can’t even log on to complete the application. I keep getting “timed out”, but thank you for the tip on removing a household member box if there is no other household member.
I am unable to log in to my account. And after waiting two weeks for an e-mail response, I sent another e-mail. Both were assigned case numbers yet neither one has been responded to at this time. I agree that the navigation forward and backward during the enrollment process was a hit and miss; some pages provided a Back link while others did not.
My biggest problem: More info is needed in order to choose a plan. I cannot choose a Health Plan if they don’t provide a list of the doctors, hospitals, and urgent care centers used under my chosen plan. I don’t currently have a doctor to perform a search on, which is the only option I’ve seen as part of the enrollment plan. With the exception of Blue Shield of CA, I am also unable to find this information by directly accessing the associated health care providers web site – specific covered CA plan names are not listed. This is pertinent information as is knowing how out-of-network is handled. What happens if I am out of my neighborhood on travel or something and fall ill? Major cha-ching or no coverage? IMO, the health plan information is bare bones and needs to more informative and comprehensive other than “find a doctor”.
Eve, I called into CoveredCA and their call center was responsive. I would suggest that you give them a call rather than emailing.
I was able to view all of the health plans offered on CoveredCA and select Kaiser. However this might not always work. All sorts of back end integration issues remain between HealthCare.gov and health plan carriers (I would assume the same applies to CoveredCA). This comment provides a good description of these integration issues:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/from-the-comments-dan-hanson-on-aca.html
Update 11-11-13: Still no response on both e-mails. I am able to log in using a different browser so obviously there are settings I need to change in my current browser (though I can’t figure it out yet).
Anthem has had a statement on their web site addressing the lack of a list of doctors, hospitals, urgent care centers in the network for specific Covered CA plans. They are working on it and it should be available in a week (or sooner now). Health Net is still not on the ball, as far as I can tell.
I agree with Jim. The cost listed in the preview shopping did not match the quote in the enrollment process. That was another reason I did not sign up at that time. Also I am unclear if what they list will be my actual monthly cost (subsidy applied immediately), or if I’ll be paying in full and then getting a lump tax write off at the end of the year.
Cora, thanks for your response. I’ll definitely have to call because their e-mail setup is defunct. I was hoping to find a private e-mail when I finally logged in to my account but there was nothing in my mailbox.
I am officially enrolled. The CoveredCA website was down for maintenance for several days so accessing it today was awful…very slow with a lot of crashes. I won’t even guess how many thousands of people were trying to logon today lol. Overall, I give the entire experience a C minus. Many health care providers were unprepared, and there were too many last minute revelations of errors. It’s not like everyone involved hasn’t had a 2-yr heads up for this moment.
That being said, I am extremely happy to be having health insurance Jan 2014 after being declined for many years due to pre-existing conditions. How sad that we have to pass laws forcing health insurance companies to provide insurance to the ill, not just the healthy. Ya know, sometimes people try to do all the right things but heredity has a different plan. To anyone else in my boat, congrats and a speedy recovery both physically and financially to ya’s : )
I’ve been trying to use the CoveredCA program to shop for some affordable insurance to replace the non ACA compliant “junk” policy that my employer offers. My employer is going to upgrade our insurance with something that is ACA compliant, but is still too expensive for me.
In navigating through the CoveredCA site I was met with many of the same problems that the others have mentioned. What came to my attention especially was how the system would seem to erroneously process information that I had inputted into some of the data fields, necessitating repeated edit attempts. There seemed to be a random nature to the errors generated and how the system would respond to my attempts to correct them.
What has disturbed me the most however is the apparent discrepancy in the amount of premium subsidy that I qualify for. In the preview shopping, with accurate personal info supplied, I would get premium quotes with a substantial subsidy. After formally applying, with the same personal information, I would get quotes with no premium support. This made even the bronze plans totally unaffordable.
Since I’ll qualify for medicare in a few years, I’m going to just pay the penalty before then; it’s much cheaper than the premiums from the exchange or my employer. I’m very healthy and virtually never have a need to see a doctor.
Unfortunately, my brother (62) thought the same and ran into a health problem that led to the hospital. Now he is faced with a vacuum cleaner sucking his life savings from him. They need to get this fixed. It is too important.
Finally, a fair assessment of Covered CA you won’t see in the media.
Most articles say that Covered CA is going well compared to the Federal “exchange,” but as far as I am concerned, compared to major Internet sites, Covered CA’s portal’s qualify is far below commercial quality.
Like the author, I do want the health care reform to succeed, but the Covered CA website still has bugs even after 7 weeks since launch.
I tried contacting their customer service to report bugs, but they told me that I don’t really have a way to report bugs.
The federal government spent $600 million and counting for their “exchange” to serve 36 states that require the federal exchange.
California which has 13% of the population spent almost $400 million for this fancy “exchange.”
I feel like State of California was massively overchanged by Accenture.
This is what happens when government get too privatized to the point where people in the government don’t know what is a fair price for a service or know how ot manage this type of project.
coming from a neutral party
A little more comments.
When I tried to sign up around October 3rd, I simply could not even log in after creating an account.
From there, I had to wait another week to be able to just log in.
Yes, I also saw the same 30 SECOND page load every time I clicked, “Next.”
Lately, the speed of the website has improved considerably, but I still have not got past the income eligibility stage.
I submitted a document on November 8th, but I have not seen any action.
As far as I am concerned, while I do support a health care reform, in general, I believe this fancy “premium support” or “premium subsidy” is just another fancy way to call “means testing.”
I believe there were 56 to 57 votes in the U.S. Senate for Public Option in 2009, but a few senators bought by the private health insurance industry rewrote the law to gut Public Option.
Yes, I am talking about Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Blanche Lincoln specifically.
I resent them for this mess.
Because of this, we ended up with a complicated system where the government needs to build a fancy website to do means testing, and preserve private health insurnace industry.
Since there are more moving parts, more chance of things going wrong.
And CA gets hit with $400 tab for a fancy website, and of course, some private corporation will “build” it for them.
In the future, I don’t think most government programs should not impose means testings since it complicates the programs considerably.
Only a few need based programs like SNAP or TNAF should have income verification, and something like health care should not be subjected to income verification (i.e., if a millionaire wants it, I am fine with it.).
Even though many U.S. citizens (i.e., especially white people) tend to distrust government, they tend to hold government to higher standards then private corporations, and Democratic Party politicians should be aware of this in the future.
And let’s not ignore the fact that this “exchange” concept originated from Heritage Foundation, and most conservative politicans (Republicans) support means testing on EVERY government programs (i.e., Social Security, Medicare).
Based on the experience of ACA “exchange,” there will be far less political support to do means testing on government programs in the future.
> And CA gets hit with $400 tab for a fancy website, and of course, some private corporation will “build” it for them.
And CA gets hit with $400 million tab for a fancy website, and of course, some private corporation will “build” it for them.
Tried to buy insurance via CoveredCa, but when logged in, the system error popped up: e.g., System Error 662942 for the past 3 weeks and just now. Tried to call the 800 line, it was busy all the time, waiting time is greater than 30 minutes. Tried Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox, all the same errors. Any suggestions?
I can’t log and it’s 2:30pm on a Monday. I’ve been trying for about 45 minutes. I’ve tried shutting down my computer and logging on with 3 different browsers. Also, by calling, I found out 2 of my proof of residency documents never went through even though the system said they did when I originally submitted them, okay… So now I can’t get into the system to reupload my documents and make changes to my application. I’m so nervous that the website problems (I had worse problems with this system) will keep me from submitting my application before the December 15th deadline! This is especially important to me because my cobra coverage is kicking my family and I off December 31st– argh!
Try this URL to login:
https://v.calheers.ca.gov/apspahbx/login.portal#
RE: “Lack of login link. Why is their no login link on the landing page? It is completely non-intuitive to click “start” when I really want to just login and continue my application.”
I logged in before and almost completed the process but now can’t find anyplace to get back in. I’m completely baffled as to how or where to “login” again. No button, no link, no directions. Call-in line just told me there was a 30 min wait for assistance. Help!
I am enrolled with the Kaiser silver plan through Covered California. It does take patience and having to go through pages you don’t need to go through to make changes.
Anyway, I am covered for 90 days, and I submitted my required documents, but now they don’t show.
Is this supposed to happen? My comments show, my case # shows, “submitted,” shows, but I cannot seen the documents I uploaded. Where did they go? Are they removed after 2 weeks?
Last night I stumbled across a huge error at Coveredca.com. I was truly frightened until I figured out what was going on. There are 2 ways to get an estimate of your monthly premiums: Either you click on the ‘shop and compare tool’ which yields a correct estimate, or you click on ‘start here’ which links to v.calheers.ca.gov and that’s where the problem is. That site consistently estimates much higher monthly premiums, 20-25% of monthly income! The error kicks in only for families of 3 or more. The subsidies seem do be calculated correctly, resulting in an estimated monthly premium about double of what it should be. This is UNACCEPTABLE! No wonder so many people turn away from the ACA. They should remove the link to v.calheers.ca immediately until it is fixed. Also, people need to be told that they may have come across a wrong estimate.
I was able to initiate and complete the baseline application for my partner in mid-October, but needed to get the identification documents photographed and uploaded.
Now, when I try to log in, I get a continual ‘Invalid username or password.’ I use the ‘forgot password’ link, which returned the correct questions for the username (so clearly the DB recognizes the username). got to the password reset screen (6 x now on 3 different browsers). Reset the password but I am still unable to log in.
Also received a 90 day letter in mid-November asking for unspecified documentation and indicating he appears to be eligible for Medi-Cal and that the county would be in touch. So far, no contact from county.
I very much want this to work, but it appears to be a completely failure as an end user experience.
Ahh, it appears that my issue with logging in is because they changed the login URL to: https://v.calheers.ca.gov/apspahbx/login.portal#
Still need to provide proof of residency and proof of income, can’t find list of acceptable documents.
O.K. can access all the info pages at covered.ca,
but the MAIN start page!!!
I get this ERROR:
“Incompatible or unsupported protocol version”
I was able to access start and all questionaire pages
from Nov.23rd and before.
I tried both IE and Firefox, same error message;
so it is something they have changed.
Any help?
thanks.
I am still with the same issue. Not getting any subsidy (eventhough first estimates said I will receive help), higher premium and type of file being uploaded not supported, this is with all the previous issues mentioned. On top of that, it was broadcasted that the top ITs that is working on their site was asked if they feel secure uploading their personal information to the site, they unanimously said no. Now, not sure what to do?
A friend signed up, partly on Covered CA web site, but finished choosing a plan by phone because web site wouldn’t finish the process…
Now comes a letter asking for proof of income, which can (it says) be submitted on the web site, but no indication how or where! Directions are to be found in a ‘what to do if you qualify for 90 days..’ document, but it isn’t to be found anywhere on the web site either, nor do search engines seem to know where it is. Luz on Dec 2 said he uploaded documents, but doesn’t say how. There is an inbox, with the same letter that came by mail, but no way to reply (and no outbox).
So how do you submit documents to Covered CA electronically?
David, I’m in the same boat. My enrollment process somehow took a step backward to a 90-day conditional after already being approved??? I got a letter to log in to my acct and upload a doc. The Upload Document link does not work. I’ve tried clicking it directly and clicking it after activating Make a Change. The link has been defunct for over 10 days now. So frustrating, especially since I know they don’t need the document requested : / Both the 800 number and live chat are disconnecting users too. I’ve read comments from others that have uploaded docs, so it was working at one time. The only other options are to fax or send via us mail.
Did they give you an address to send the docs to for verification I have the same issue and would like the option to mail mine.
I have been trying to complete an application for three days. Everytime I get to the income section, I get a system error. I have emailed twice, no response. I have waited on the online chat for 30+ minutes and when I was number 1 I was kicked off. This is just not acceptable. What a joke.
I experienced most of the aforementioned problems and wrote about it here: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/12/glitches-ive-encountered-with-covered.html
Ditto on all previous comments. As of Dec 21, any edit crashes and keeps crashing when I get to confirm income. An error alert takes me back to start, wipes out all data and permanent system error locks me out every time I log in and try to resume input. No email response or phone support available.
As only 2 days left, I am SOL.
Don’t dispair! CoveredCA just extended the deadline today. If you’re in the system you should be able to complete an application for January 1 coverage. I suggest contacting a Covered California Certified Insurance Agent like me. There is no charge for Certified Agent assistance. I have been using the website every day and have picked up many tricks and workarounds. I would be happy to help.
Additional problems encountered while trying to make changes in income and coverage.
http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/12/complications-in-making-changes-in.html
I agree! As a Covered California Certified Insurance Agent I am struggling with the website every day. The site is difficult to use, lacks meaningful instructions, and has many confusing questions. Minor mistakes in data input can result in major errors in assistance eligibility. No wonder people are confused. I am concerned that many people who are actually eligible for assistance will think they are not. Accenture should be held accountable but, of course, will not.
I have wasted an entire afternoon trying to complete my application. Don’t waste your time waiting for “chat online”. After waiting 30-45 minutes, you will be informed that there is no agent available. Don’t call customer service. After getting useless info in english and spanish, the recorded message hangs up. Just like others who have voiced their objections to the worthlessness of this method of application with its innumerable flaws, I am at a loss on how to proceed or just give up. The media needs to tell us people just how bad the system is! But they don’t want to since that would be subverting all the Democrats and Obama who were suckered into these programs that were probably written by a first year computer science jock at the local jc.
I have had numerous problems with the site it’s taken me 2 weeks to get to elgibility. You need to log back out and back in once you are in the verification page. The first issue it wanted me to show proof of citizenship and I am born and raised here. 2nd after several attempts at customer service calls that I was also hung up on after long waits, also no reply to cutomer service emails. I’ve sent multiple emails. On my 3rd chat attempt after the first 2 were unsuccesful I was kicked off after an hour of wait time the 3rd one I was helped and he fixed the form saying I was not a citizen and said upload your income verification docs. That same day I tried to and the system was down, now it says no type of file I attempt will upload the file type is not supported. We are talking about word pdf jpg etc. common types of scanned files. What do they think I am? I sent more emails and have no reply tried the phones no answer and now back to chat with over 500 people infront of me and an hour 1/2 wait chance is I will get cut off. Good luck on getting this insurance. It’s the worst site I have ever saw. I also selected the wrong health plan and it won’t let you delete out of your shoping cart to pick an alternate. I didn’t realize it was HMO It just shows Silver Anthem until after you pick it that should be in the initial description.
Here is mid Feb of 2014. I waited so long to apply on CoveredCA. Yet, I am still not able to even create a user. First try, I got this:
javax.xml.ws.soap.SOAPFaultException: oracle.iam.identity.exception.UserCreateException: Orchestration process with id 3843824, failed with error message Queue:not found.
Second try I got this:
javax.xml.ws.soap.SOAPFaultException: oracle.iam.identity.exception.ValidationFailedException: IAM-3050007:The user with the attribute User Login and value xxxxx already exists.:User Login:xxxxxx
What an unbelievably frustrating experience. I really want this to work. I’m a huge supporter of the Affordable Health Care Act, feel that it’s definitely the right thing for America.
But I can’t for the life of me actually get any insurance.
I cannot add any family members. It just bounces me out…I enter family member, it asks for validation, I confirm all is correct and I get an error message, over and over and over again.
I’ve been trying for 3 weeks now. I’ve sent emails. I’ve waited 2 hours for live chat before finally being bounced off and never spoken to. My family and I need insurance. We’re not covered (thanks Aetna for bailing on us) and I can’t figure out how the heck we’re going to do this. HELP!
This is the worst website hands down that I have ever encountered! I could have done a better job managing this and so could my Aunt Bessie who died in 1730 and never got to even hear about the internet. Why I can imagine her and her surviving children hunkering down on their po farm and trying to make sense of the coveredca.com website. She’d just chomp on her corn cob pipe and tell stories of the good ol days when humorous toads would be the cause of illness. Still I have to admit that Coveredca is as good and reliable a source of information and health care as dear ol Auntie Bessie! Thank ye coveredca!
I made an account 2 days ago, now I can’t log in. Says my user name has illegal characters? Huh? Why is this so difficult?
My username is no longer working. I called the number and got a recording that due to high call volume they can’t answer. “Goodbye.” So I chose the Instant Messaging option and waited at my computer for 1hr40minutes (as the estimated wait time would fluctuate randomly between 2 minutes and 2 hours). When I was finally down to being #1 in the queue I got a message that there are no agents to help me and suggested I contact via email. Good job getting my blood pressure up to never-before-seen levels coveredca.com!
I notice some of the issues from months ago listed above are still present, including form fields scrambling input, repeated/redundant questions and most annoyingly the little help (question mark icons) don’t do jack in IE, Chrome OR Firefox! If you cannot even make a simple popup work then you need to find web programmers who are capable of actually programming. (I’d gladly submit an application to help out with this debacle!)
I just wasted over one hour this morning trying to get someone at CoveredCA.com to “Chat Online” with me. I started being number 288 on the queue. And when it was almost my turn I got the message “There are no agents available to chat with you right now. Please try again later”. Do you know how aggravating that was? Then this afternoon, I called the number 800-300-1506 and waited for more than one hour again and nobody answered the phone. What a frustrating day! Please fix this problem!
Website lost all records of my application 6 weeks ago. Called today and will have to wait three days to reapply from the beginning; system screwed up. The state of California is run by a career politician who knows how to cash checks and spend our money, and that’s it. I’ve been sick most of the 6 weeks since I applied and my application was lost – I think I’ll just go to an ER that I can’t pay for – I don’t think there’s much hope; the people running this went to school in California and learned politically correct Marxism, and nothing else. Brown’s father advised Hitler on his eugenics program, Jerry’s just using health insurance. No more democrats.
The website does not work, even there calculator. This Obamacare, is a bunch of polictical garbage, and us citizens are stuck with this while the insurance companies get richer and richer and raising the rates. If anyone thinks that this insurance is good because they won;t deny a person pre existing conditions is another smoke screen by politicians.
I was told that the insurance will go up every year because its based off of age. Lets think for a minute, if everyone pays these increases year after year then who cares about the pre existing conditions? The insurance companies will make more money due to the annual increases. WAKE UP AND SEE ALL THE SMOKE SCREENS FROM OUR DIRTY POLITICIANS!
Who is in bed with who? somebody made a whole lot of money for their computer contracts that also don’t work. If the system was designed correctly we would never had these issues. While I wait to obtain insurance due to the Covered California F circus I am not covered.
In a nutshell, Its like a scam and we are stuck in it!
Fred, indeed these health insurance exchange websites should work far better than they do but I do not believe one should thrown out the baby with the bath water.
Sure, Obamacare is not perfect, but it does guarantee coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions and that is a huge step forward. Just do a search and read the horror stories of those without insurance in the past who got diagnosed with cancer, could not get coverage and ended up filing for bankruptcy. It is morally in just that the number one cause of personal bankruptcy was healthcare costs.
Hope you do find the coverage you need.
The CoveredCA website is absolutely awful and so is there hotline that makes you wait 30 minute to an hour on hold for an operator to answer.
I tried opening one of the letters from the inbox and all I get is the following garbage:
at org.springframework.web.portlet.DispatcherPortlet.render(DispatcherPortlet.java:1093)
at org.springframework.web.portlet.DispatcherPortlet.doRenderService(DispatcherPortlet.java:755)
at org.springframework.web.portlet.FrameworkPortlet.doDispatch(FrameworkPortlet.java:470)
at javax.portlet.GenericPortlet.render(GenericPortlet.java:233)
at com.bea.portlet.container.PortletStub.doRender(PortletStub.java:955)
at com.bea.portlet.container.PortletStub.render(PortletStub.java:414)
I switched browsers from Firefox to Chrome and still get the same garbage. Don’t these people do Quality Assurance Testing? Fire them all and contract with real good quality developers.
Ok so here i am and the midnite deadline of feb 15 has now come and gone. I evenyually did make progress in being told my son is covered under covered calif./he can see a doctor/and that he?may qualify for medical??. I uploaded and submitted all the unnecessary documuments they requested, but never could get passed that point. Never was able to get to where i made my choice on providers, jus kept bouncing me around from -to see if i qualify for federal assistance(then that only gave me estimated answers. I was needing to enroll my son thru kaiser due his disability being nonverbal autistic at age 5- im desperately needing to get him qualified help in so many different developemental issues hes facing, but the major cocern for me as his parent is finding the assistance in getting thru to him in speech! This is the roadblock to all issues hes having stemming from his inability to communicate verbally to express himself n his needs which ultimately lead to the built up frustration he carries wth him every single day onto the next. The most crucial First Five yrs are up for him and i feel iv failed him on getting critical help he needed thru that time. So every day aftr that is just getting him further and further behind and that much easier or more welcoming for him to get lost in his own lil world stronger and stronger. I needed hin to get in thru kaiser and we do qualify for it thru medical due to our low income. I was told he could get onto to kaiser wth a no payment plan due to our situation and his disability, but NOW I HAVE FAILED HIM AGAIN BY NOT BEING ABLE TO GET THIS COMPLETED BY THE DEADLINE THAT HAS NOW ENDED ABOUT AN HOUR AGO. *PLEASE i need advice or instructions on what i can do from here?? Do i have any options or am i just left wth my son being covered by covered california(cause that i did accomplish)but never got him enrolled thru an insurance company. I do desperately want for him to have kaiser, but now at this point, i gues im only left wth needing any insurance company for him to have-but dont know where to go from here????
Hello CJ,
So very sorry to hear of the struggles you are facing in trying to get the best care possible for your son. It sounds like you really are doing the best you can so first off, please don”t feel guilty. The healthcare system, if you can even call it a system is extremely difficult to navigate even for us who spend all our working hours studying this market, how it works and how it does not.
My suggestion to you is to directly contact an autism support group in your area and ask them for assistance. I’m quite positive they have come across this problem before and should be able to assist. Secondly, call your state representative or senator and ask their office for assistance as well. They know that their constituents are struggling at times to enroll their families in insurance via the health insurance exchanges and should be able to provide you some guidance as well.
Good luck to you and your son. Have faith, I do believe we have guardian angels watching over us and one is there to help you on this path as well.
John
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I, too, really want to support Covered CA and see it succeed, but between this website and Blue Shield, I couldn’t be more frustrated. The Covered CA website (once you go through the horror of signing up which was completely counterintuitive and initially asks a two questions to begin and which I answered INCORRECTLY because the question seemed to be indicating that I was asking for Med-i-Cal assistance) just continues the pain. When you land, there are two choices (yet again, they don’t make sense). If neither of them applies, what to do? Turns out, that in order to get into the site (to read your messages, say) YOU MUST CLICK “Make a Change.” What if I don’t want to make a change? Once I got through THAT, I have to deal with constant requests for proof of income, but they want me to guess what I’m missing instead of just telling me. For people like me who are self-employed with a business down 90% due to COVID-19 and with an older spouse who is Social Security, this has been a nightmare. I’ve also been told that hardly anyone complains about the user problems with this site, but as nice as the customer service people have been, I do not believe that. I have never seen such a counter intuitive website in my life.