My ObamaCare Story

by Moe White

At 10 o’clock one evening at the beginning of March, I sat down at my computer and did a Google search for “Affordable Care Act.” By 10:01 I was immersed in www.healthcare.gov.

Since I haven’t had health insurance for more than 20 years, I wanted to look at insurance options before signing up. It took me about 25 minutes to review the seven plans available in the “Silver” category—the one where I pay about 30% and insurance pays 70%. The other categories are Bronze, which pays 60% while you pay 40% (five plans available); Gold, which pays 80% while you pay 20% (four available); and Platinum, which pays 90% while you pay 10% (one plan).

Six of the seven Silver plans were from Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC, one from Coventry One. Their prices ranged from $600/month to $712/month for this 60-year-old single man. I liked the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Silver 3000 plan, which fit my budget and had (for me) the best balance between, on the one hand, total deductible and out-of-pocket costs, and, on the other, affordable monthly premiums.

After looking at the plans, I checked out the page with subsidy information to see what sort of subsidy I’d be eligible for. That took at least three minutes; it showed that, no matter what plan I chose, my income would qualify me for a $554/month subsidy. Wow! That meant I could get my plan for $45 a month, with a total deductible of $1,000 and an out-of-pocket maximum (all costs) of $3,000 per year. (Note: I estimated my income will by higher in 2014 than it actually was in 2013; if I’d used last year’s income my subsidy would be even more.)

After reviewing the plans and deciding that I was ready to sign up, I went back to the home page and, instead of comparing plans, clicked on the “enroll” option. From there it went, page by page, through the information I provided, including five or six security measures: user name and password, of course, and questions about my credit and my personal history that only I could answer correctly (what bank holds my mortgage, who gets my car payment, what high school I did (or didn’t) attend, and other questions like that. Then, in two sections, a total of four security questions that I chose, and for which I provided the answers (again, things no one else could know, like my favorite radio station or favorite childhood toy).

And at the end of those questions, I got a confirmation page and was enrolled in the Health Care Marketplace for North Carolina. That confirmed my eligibility for a subsidy. At which point I could stop there, or go ahead and apply for a plan.

I clicked on “apply,” and the system immediately sent me to the Blue Cross website. There, a similar process took place: fill out the forms, confirm information they gleaned from the Healthcare.gov site, provide additional information about my health (am I a smoker?) and eligibility (could I get coverage from an employer?), and, once that was done—about 10 minutes later—it confirmed I would get the subsidy Healthcare.gov had promised.

So I chose my plan, refused the optional dental coverage, and signed up. At which point it asked if I wanted to make my first payment now (necessary to start the coverage effective April 1), or wait and have them send me a paper bill for the first month’s premium. I went ahead and paid with my debit card, using the option of an automatic monthly deduction from checking, and in five minutes my first premium was paid and the automatic deduction was set to kick in May 1.

The time was 11:45 p.m. Just under two hours, and I’ve got health insurance!

When I took out a mortgage to buy my brother’s share of our inherited family home, it took two months, multiple copies of countless pages of notarized papers, a title search (even though my family had owned the house for 58 years) … and then three hours at the attorney’s office on the day of the closing. I do get a subsidy; the interest on the mortgage is tax-deductible, so I save about $400 a year on my taxes.

I bought a new car last year, and that ordeal took three hours and 45 minutes—and that was after my credit report had come in confirming my good credit rating, and after confirming the value of my trade-in—to get the paperwork all filled out for the title deed, the warranty papers, and the loan. But no subsidy for the purchase price or the insurance I’m forced to carry.

Yet here I am with health insurance for the first time in two decades, facing a monthly cost of $45.25 per month, maximum out-of-pocket cost of $3,000 per year, and blessed with a total subsidy of almost $6,000 a year—which I hope is paid for by the Koch brothers. All in 105 minutes.

That awful, dreadful, burdensome, unworkable, unaffordable ObamaCare—no wonder the GOP is still trying to repeal it. If all the people eligible for this kind of coverage, and this kind of subsidy, signed up, the Republicans would never win another seat in Congress!