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| Real people's stories from day one of the US health insurance exchanges | Real people's stories from day one of the US health insurance exchanges |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The marquee part of the Affordable Care Act went live yesterday as millions went online to browse health insurance options and begin signing up. There were technical glitches, and Americans took to Facebook, Twitter and other social media to vent their frustrations. Here are first-hand accounts from people in search of health insurance. | |
| Have you visited one of the health exchange websites? Share your experiences in the comments below. | Have you visited one of the health exchange websites? Share your experiences in the comments below. |
| Briston Ashe: 'This is monumental … for me, it's personal' | Briston Ashe: 'This is monumental … for me, it's personal' |
I wasn't expecting to feel so emotional today because of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act. This is MONUMENTAL! For me it's personal and hits home because I've been a witness to the hardship of not being able to have affordable health care. | I wasn't expecting to feel so emotional today because of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act. This is MONUMENTAL! For me it's personal and hits home because I've been a witness to the hardship of not being able to have affordable health care. |
| Some people don't understand why I feel the way I do, but, until you've had to deal with the fact that you'll have to stop pursuing your first true love and your passion as a trained dancer at the age of 16 because of a knee injury that can't be taken care of because your single mother can't afford health insurance and it's not offered at either of the 2 jobs that she holds, until you've had a lump under your arm that's been there for at least 9 years, but you haven't been able to get it looked at by a doctor because of lack of insurance even though you've worked consistently and diligently since the age of 15, until you've lost the love of your life to a disease that could have at least been caught early and treated long enough to sustain his life just a little longer so he could be there for his boys (our sons) for just a few more precious years and until you've tried to helplessly console your friend whose mother passed away from bone cancer that went undetected and untreated because of ... you guessed it ... no means to get health insurance ... Then I guess you really wouldn't understand why my heart is so heavy with joy today. | Some people don't understand why I feel the way I do, but, until you've had to deal with the fact that you'll have to stop pursuing your first true love and your passion as a trained dancer at the age of 16 because of a knee injury that can't be taken care of because your single mother can't afford health insurance and it's not offered at either of the 2 jobs that she holds, until you've had a lump under your arm that's been there for at least 9 years, but you haven't been able to get it looked at by a doctor because of lack of insurance even though you've worked consistently and diligently since the age of 15, until you've lost the love of your life to a disease that could have at least been caught early and treated long enough to sustain his life just a little longer so he could be there for his boys (our sons) for just a few more precious years and until you've tried to helplessly console your friend whose mother passed away from bone cancer that went undetected and untreated because of ... you guessed it ... no means to get health insurance ... Then I guess you really wouldn't understand why my heart is so heavy with joy today. |
| People have their issues with President Obama, but if I had the chance, I would vote for him to serve a 3rd AND 4th term! If you love or know someone who doesn't have health insurance, please encourage them to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act insurance coverage. I will continue to post links and info about it and anyone who doesn't like that can kick a million rocks #ACA #openenrollmenttoday | People have their issues with President Obama, but if I had the chance, I would vote for him to serve a 3rd AND 4th term! If you love or know someone who doesn't have health insurance, please encourage them to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act insurance coverage. I will continue to post links and info about it and anyone who doesn't like that can kick a million rocks #ACA #openenrollmenttoday |
| Briston Ashe lives in East Saint Louis, Illinois. She posted a version of this on Facebook yesterday. | Briston Ashe lives in East Saint Louis, Illinois. She posted a version of this on Facebook yesterday. |
| Jimmy LaSalvia: 'I wasn't even able to see what is in the health exchange plans or what they cost' | Jimmy LaSalvia: 'I wasn't even able to see what is in the health exchange plans or what they cost' |
| I am a 42-year-old, single, self-employed man who lives on a modest income in a large city. I currently pay for an individual policy through a major HMO. My premium has already gone up 25% this year, and I've read news reports that individual coverage for single men could more than double under Obamacare. Needless to say, the cost of health insurance is a major concern for me every month as I work to make ends meet. | I am a 42-year-old, single, self-employed man who lives on a modest income in a large city. I currently pay for an individual policy through a major HMO. My premium has already gone up 25% this year, and I've read news reports that individual coverage for single men could more than double under Obamacare. Needless to say, the cost of health insurance is a major concern for me every month as I work to make ends meet. |
| Today I decided to go online to get a quote to see if the District of Columbia's exchange, DC Health Link, would be able to provide coverage for less than I am paying now. You have to create an online account in order to get any information about plans and costs, so I went through the process of creating a username and password, and gave my date of birth and zip code. Then I clicked "Browse Plans" and that's when the process stopped. When I tried to click to take the next step, I just got a nearly blank screen and then nothing, not even an error message. I wasn't even able to see what is in the health exchange plans or what they cost to know if I would be able to get more affordable coverage than I currently have. | Today I decided to go online to get a quote to see if the District of Columbia's exchange, DC Health Link, would be able to provide coverage for less than I am paying now. You have to create an online account in order to get any information about plans and costs, so I went through the process of creating a username and password, and gave my date of birth and zip code. Then I clicked "Browse Plans" and that's when the process stopped. When I tried to click to take the next step, I just got a nearly blank screen and then nothing, not even an error message. I wasn't even able to see what is in the health exchange plans or what they cost to know if I would be able to get more affordable coverage than I currently have. |
| I should say that I opposed Obamacare when it passed, and I have supported recent efforts to delay the individual mandate's implementation. It only seems fair that individuals, like me, should get the same benefit that the president gave to big corporations – at least a one-year delay. I favor free-market based reforms in healthcare, and I hope that this disastrous rollout of President Obama's government-run system will show policymakers that it's time to go back to the drawing board. | I should say that I opposed Obamacare when it passed, and I have supported recent efforts to delay the individual mandate's implementation. It only seems fair that individuals, like me, should get the same benefit that the president gave to big corporations – at least a one-year delay. I favor free-market based reforms in healthcare, and I hope that this disastrous rollout of President Obama's government-run system will show policymakers that it's time to go back to the drawing board. |
| Jimmy LaSalvia is a political consultant and commentator in Washington DC. He co-founded GOProud. | Jimmy LaSalvia is a political consultant and commentator in Washington DC. He co-founded GOProud. |
| Kaisa Dum: 'I STILL cannot log on after 10 hours of trying' | Kaisa Dum: 'I STILL cannot log on after 10 hours of trying' |
| I received some informational papers about the new healthcare act Monday at work. I decided to hop on healthcare.gov to check it out and see if I could find anything more about employees who already have health insurance from their employer and want to compare. When I got to the site, the first thing I noticed, being a designer, was that the website is designed and organized very well. I was impressed. Questions that I had were answered quickly. I was pleased with healthcare.gov ... until this morning. | I received some informational papers about the new healthcare act Monday at work. I decided to hop on healthcare.gov to check it out and see if I could find anything more about employees who already have health insurance from their employer and want to compare. When I got to the site, the first thing I noticed, being a designer, was that the website is designed and organized very well. I was impressed. Questions that I had were answered quickly. I was pleased with healthcare.gov ... until this morning. |
| Around 8:30am I attempted to set up an account on the site so I could get estimates of what healthcare will cost for someone in my age/income bracket. After I hit the "Apply Now" button, I got this message: "Health Insurance Marketplace: Please Wait. We have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we're working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page. Thanks for your patience!" I waited about 30 seconds and then it lead me through the account set-up process. I made it to the last portion of the simple form: the security questions. I knew something wasn't right when the drop down boxes were blank and gave no options to choose from. Just to double check that it wasn't my browser, I repeated the process in another browser with the same results. When I tried a final and third time, the site notified me that it was down due to a large amount of traffic. | Around 8:30am I attempted to set up an account on the site so I could get estimates of what healthcare will cost for someone in my age/income bracket. After I hit the "Apply Now" button, I got this message: "Health Insurance Marketplace: Please Wait. We have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we're working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page. Thanks for your patience!" I waited about 30 seconds and then it lead me through the account set-up process. I made it to the last portion of the simple form: the security questions. I knew something wasn't right when the drop down boxes were blank and gave no options to choose from. Just to double check that it wasn't my browser, I repeated the process in another browser with the same results. When I tried a final and third time, the site notified me that it was down due to a large amount of traffic. |
| I gave up and posted a status on Facebook about the experience. Some people had the same issues, others were successful in signing up for healthcare. Being a supporter of "Obamacare", I wanted this to go as smoothly as possible, especially with everything else in the government producing eye rolls and groans. I checked back throughout the day to see if there was any progress made with resolving the issues. It's been around 10 hours since I made my first attempt, and I STILL cannot log on. I would think that since all uninsured people in the US are required to sign up for insurance now, the website that facilitates it should be better prepared for a high volume of traffic. Who knows, maybe the people that can fix the issue have been furloughed. Although we have months to complete this sign up process, it would have been in the government's best interest for the first day (which happens to fall on the same day that the government shut down) to run seamlessly when the majority of people have such little faith in our government. | I gave up and posted a status on Facebook about the experience. Some people had the same issues, others were successful in signing up for healthcare. Being a supporter of "Obamacare", I wanted this to go as smoothly as possible, especially with everything else in the government producing eye rolls and groans. I checked back throughout the day to see if there was any progress made with resolving the issues. It's been around 10 hours since I made my first attempt, and I STILL cannot log on. I would think that since all uninsured people in the US are required to sign up for insurance now, the website that facilitates it should be better prepared for a high volume of traffic. Who knows, maybe the people that can fix the issue have been furloughed. Although we have months to complete this sign up process, it would have been in the government's best interest for the first day (which happens to fall on the same day that the government shut down) to run seamlessly when the majority of people have such little faith in our government. |
| Kaisa Dum is a graphic designer and freelancer from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. | Kaisa Dum is a graphic designer and freelancer from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. |
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