And More to Come from Second Open Enrollment Period
One year ago today Americans went to HealthCare.gov and found an incomplete and impossible to navigate website that failed to deliver what the administration had promised. Then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius described this launch as a “debacle" and a year later, the more than $2 billion system remains incomplete and insecure.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the challenges for the second open enrollment period are much more complicated and could leave Americans with even more costs, cancelled plans, and uncertainty. CNN reports, “Hospitals are increasingly asking patients to pay for procedures either upfront or before they are discharged. That’s because Americans are shouldering a greater portion of their health care bills, and medical centers don’t want to get stuck with patients that can’t pay. … patients are facing higher deductibles and larger payments for services. Some are surprised to find out that they have to fork over thousands of dollars before their insurance even kicks in, hospital administrators said. The policies available on the Obamacare exchanges are hastening this trend."
The Morning Consult reports that, “Letters notifying consumers that their insurance policies are cancelled will be sent next month to thousands of Americans, delivering bad news that can be pegged to Obamacare … In Kentucky, the Department of Insurance told Morning Consult that nearly 14,000 people, mostly enrolled in plans from Humana, will have been notified of a plan cancellation by October 1."
The Albuquerque Journal reports, “About 30,000 New Mexicans are about to see their individual health insurance plans go away." The Times-News reports in Idaho, “The Twin Falls School District has slashed scores of employees’ hours amid fears of skyrocketing health-care costs under the Affordable Care Act." The Los Angeles Times adds, “Finding a doctor who takes Obamacare coverage could be just as frustrating for Californians in 2015 as the health-law expansion enters its second year."
Oregon’s website is still not operational. Fox News reports, “Cover Oregon was supposed to be a shining example of Obamacare at its best. The state insurance exchange for the state of Oregon received $300 million in federal grants to launch a state-of-the-art website. But it never worked, and not a single Oregonian was able to sign up for health care from start to finish. So now, Oregon is in the process of pulling the plug on the site and switching over to the federal exchange and HealthCare.gov - but the question is, how quickly they can do it."
The situation is not much better in Vermont where Newsweek reports, “Vermont’s glitch-plagued health insurance website, once a beacon for health care reform, has been put into a medically-induced coma. The state temporarily pulled the plug on its online insurance marketplace on Tuesday, an effort to try to overhaul it - again - for open enrollments next month."
Maryland, where President Obama declared it would be “smoother " because of a loyal ally in Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley, is also struggling to prepare for year two. The Washington Post reports, “Maryland officials want to limit access to the state’s new health insurance Web site when it launches in November so that any glitches can be worked out and the system won’t be overwhelmed with requests."
The federal system also remains incomplete. The Weekly Standard reports that the “HHS has still not been able to complete the transition" with the contractor hired in June 2013 “as the main contractor hosting the federal insurance marketplace and data services hub."
Obamacare also continues to face trouble in the courts. Reuters reports, “A federal judge in Oklahoma ruled on Tuesday that tax subsidies vital to the implementation of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law are unlawful."
The administration has already delayed the start of the second open enrollment period until Nov. 15, 2014, but six weeks is hardly enough time to address the many challenges facing the federal and state exchanges.
Yet despite the chaos from coast to coast and repeated broken promises over the first year, the Obama administration still found reason to crack the champagne with the president’s Hollywood friends.
