It’s Not Too Late
— by Lin McNulty —
If, in the holiday rush, you forgot to signup for ObamaCare, there is still time. It’s just that your coverage did not start on January 1.
Local Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisor (SHIBA) Pegi Groundwater says she and her husband have enrolled 134 applicants and that most of them seem to be very happy with the new coverage.
Applicants have until the 23rd of any month to have coverage start the first of the folowing month. Applications after April will incur a penalty for late registration, but as long as the (digital) paperwork is begun before that April deadline, you can still get coverage without that penalty.
Aaimee Johnson at Orcas Family Health says she has signed up around a dozen people. She acknowledges that website glitches were a problem. But, she says, “I am the queen of Plan B, C, and D.” She encouraged people to sign up as far as the website would take them. The online applications are date and time stamped, so, she advised people to take a screenshot of their application at the point at which it failed and then to proceed with the process through the normal mail system.
Pegi says call center (1-855-923-4633) wait times have been a problem, as it was nearly impossible to get into the queue to get questions answered. “If I called in the early morning I could usually get through to them in about 30 minutes, but any other time of day it took about four hours.”
If you still want assistance, SHIBA staff continues to take appointments at Orcas Medical Center on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The Orcas Affordable Care Collaborative, a group formed locally by Orcas Family Connections (Erin O’Dell and Kalie McGinnis), Orcas Medical Center (Pegi Groundwater and Michael Moss), and Orcas Family Health Center (Aaimee Johnson and Dixie Morrison), also remain available to help.
I signed up and had no problem. Worked fast and well. And the insurance plans include the doctors and hospitals I like.