Rude Awakening: Woman Who Got Shout-Out From President – Can’t Afford Obamacare Policy After All

The Washington State Wire ^ | 11/19/2013

[llevrok]

OLYMPIA, Nov. 17.—Jessica Sanford, the Federal Way woman who got a shout-out from President Obama last month with her fan letter for the Affordable Care Act, got a rather rude awakening last week. Turns out she doesn’t qualify for a tax credit after all.

At least that’s what the letter said that she got from the state. Now she says her dream of affordable health insurance has gone poof.(snip) “I’m really terribly embarrassed,” she says. “It has completely turned around on me.(snip).”

Chalk it up to a bollixed-up state website that apparently still has major problems. Originally it said Sanford and her child would get a whopping tax credit that would reduce their total premium to $169 a month. Now the state is telling her it goofed – twice – and she has to pay full ticket. There may even be a third goof involved: At least one health-insurance broker says she may qualify for a tax credit after all, albeit a small one. Officials at the state Healthplanfinder website could not be contacted Sunday night. But it just goes to show that even in the state of Washington, which has earned national kudos for a health-insurance exchange that seems to function better than the dysfunctional federal website, there are big, big problems.

“They have to own up to what is going on,” Sanford says. “They have to fix it. (snip) In my opinion they ought to shut it down and just get all of it straightened out.”

Sanford’s tale may not be all that unusual amid the national furor over Obamacare’s sputtering start. But it is particularly embarrassing because the president himself mentioned it in a speech, calling it a success story that makes the case for the program. These days fan letters are few and far between.

[bigfootbob]

Thanks and good luck to you. The stress from this crap can cause you to get sicker than you should. It took me a month to get out of the funk the cessation letter caused. I couldn’t imagine what more sick people than I are experiencing, this is the crazy. I still haven’t found a single doctor or practicing nurse who likes this Obamacare BS...not a one. I ask them all too.

[Baynative]

One of the specialists my wife sees is closing her Dermatology practice, says regulations and restrictions getting too messy and patients are being dropped for certain selected coverages.

[bigfootbob]

Yep. That was one of my considerations when looking for a new policy. I don’t want to retrain the doctors so we are always on the same treatment page. Good luck to you, be vigilant.