Obamacare was going to fix all that was wrong with health insurance. No more plans that exclude coverage or cause consumers to go bankrupt over unpaid medical bills.
Tell that to Marlene Allen.
Marlene Allen thought she had decent medical coverage after she fell in December and broke her wrist. She had come in from walking the dogs. It was wet. The fracture needed surgery and screws and a plate.
Weeks later, she learned her employer health plan would cover nothing. Not the initial doctor visit, not the outpatient surgery, not the anesthesiology. She had $19,000 in bills. - Kaiser Health News
And her employer health insurance plan paid .................. $0.
The employer plan only met the spirit of the law in providing minimum essential coverage. In this case the minimum was "Preventive Services Only".
That's what her insurance card said. I guess she didn't read the card or the summary of benefits before signing up for this minimum coverage.
To make matters worse, the advice given by the folks at MNsure was less than stellar.
Actually it was downright criminal.
Except there is no one to be held accountable at these exchanges. You place your bets and they take your money.
After she learned that her work plan covered hardly anything and tried to get back on a marketplace policy, MNsure told her she’s not eligible for subsidies to buy it. Wrong again.“Horrible situation,” said Sabrina Corlette, project director at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. It “does make you wonder about the training these call-center folks are getting.”Yeah, it does.
But didn't the president say buying health insurance was as easy as going online and buying an airplane ticket? How much training to ticket agents get?
I don't know but I suspect it is more than these exchange phone clerks get.
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