How is your ACA application going? I’m betting better than ours.
I’m still trying to get our application accepted the way I submitted it. There was a one digit error in my SS number, and in Kentucky’s website, once an application is e-signed you can’t change your SSN. Perhaps because of that error I had to prove citizenship, SSN, and income. Those have been proven, except that the state says my 2014 income estimate is $19,000 too low without showing me where it’s low, while simultaneously telling me my numbers have not changed. I’ve spent literally hours on the telephone but it’s not resolved yet. I am preparing an appeal, and it could be that we won’t have coverage until February.
And so far I cannot find any out of state health care providers in the multi-state plan offered in KY. There is a plan offered here with “Multi-state” in its name, but I can’t find anybody who is in that network out of the state.
There is a new Subsidy Calculator out there which also provides some policy information. It gave me a happier answer to what will happen later this year when I become ineligible for ACA coverage by going into the Medicare system. That answer provides an estimate of Kat’s subsidy which approximates half what we both would qualify for, which makes sense as we will that have only one insured. Here’s a link to that new calculator:
https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ehi/resources/subsidy-calculator#subsidyEstimator
There is still far too much confusion surrounding the ACA implementation. And yet I know that the ACA is going to be a huge success and will be popular a year from now. This whole tortured system reminds me of when Quaker State’s corporate headquarters relocated from Pennsylvania to Dallas. We had the advantage of getting maybe 75% of our management and supervisory people to move there. That still meant that a quarter of management and all of the worker bees had to learn the QS way from scratch, and they had to do so all at once. We worked 70 hour weeks for about 8 months, and then, suddenly, nearly everyone understood his job, and did it. It felt so good that first Friday when I went home at 5:00 to a martini and a chunk of grilled beef. It was a regular job after that. At least until Pennzoil acquired us.
The best jobs never last long.
Life on the Blue Highways 
I have not gone back to healthcare.gov since October, when my login got munged by the system. I decided to wait until closer to the March 31 deadline as I currently have insurance and assume that by mid February, the site should be working a LOT better than it has been. I’m also waiting to see what happens with my current plan, which is up for renewal in mid-March. I’d like to see what the premium is going to be for 2014 before I make a final decision about applying for Obamacare, since I have a multi-state plan now (United Healthcare) that I’m fairly happy with — though it’s pretty much just a catastrophic plan (plus preventive at 100%). Good luck getting your issue straightened out!
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Em7, I think you should go back to the ACA site this weekend. If you qualify for a subsidy, and especially if your income looks to be less than 200% of the Fed Poverty Line, you will get some serious discounts on your premium, your co-pays, and your deductibles If You Choose the Silver Plan.
Your old plan may have been in effect long enough that they’re Grandfathered in without covering all those wonderful diagnostic tests At No Charge, and you may not qualify for any Federal subsidy under your old plan. Check with your agent on that: if he says you will get no subsidy, run, don’t walk to your computer this weekend and try to get signed up. You may well get better coverage for less money, after subsidy. Most of us will get a serious discount on insurance thru Uncle Sam, and it’s on insurance that actually covers doctor’s visits, prescription drugs, with reasonable deductibles and co=pays.
I think Big Kahuna just figured out who our other non-related regular reader is.
Thanks for checking us out.
Jackson
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Hi Jackson — Yes, I’m a regular reader! (I suspect you have more of us lurking than you think.) I found your blog while researching ACA impact on full-time travelers/RVers and have commented before. Your posts are excellent and very informative — the best info I found out there for we nomads. We don’t have an RV yet but are most likely going to be getting one in ’14. We’re only “semi-nomadic” at the moment but will be full-timing beginning next summer, if all goes as planned.
As early retirees, we will qualify for a subsidy, but in order to get a multi-state plan in our state of domicile (Florida), we have to get a rather expensive plan from FloridaBlue that, even with subsidy applied, looks like it will cost about the same as we’re paying (through March) with our current United Healthcare plan through Golden Rule, for which we get a group discount. Our current plan is not ACA-eligible as Golden Rule/UHC is not offering ACA plans in Florida (at least in 2014). Other than that, it’s quite similar to the ACA plan we will apply for, other than having a slightly higher deductible, which hasn’t been an issue for us so far (knock wood). We have both just recently completed our yearly cycle of preventive care with our current plan and are in excellent health, so don’t anticipate needing any more health care for awhile.
We will be applying (unless our current plan cuts the premium in half — not gonna happen!) — but we don’t need the plan to be in place Jan. 1.
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Em7, I would suggest changing your plan on January 1 of either ’14 or ’15 because deductibles don’t transfer from one policy to the next. And maybe since your health is good, ’15 is soon enough. Or maybe by spring ’14 you won’t have burned any deductible and can then move to an ACA plan. That’s good, too.
As they say, “Rome (Shreveport neither) wasn’t built in a day.” The ACA multistate plans are required to get more comprehensive each year, and Economics 101 tells us that those that get better quicker will attract more business. Improvement is coming, and soon.
Over time people are going to come to love the ACA nearly as much as they love Medicare. Dig into it and figure out what makes the most sense for you. Navigators and insurance agents can help now and then, but I bet you’re going to make better decisions for Em7 than they can. Go for it!
And thank you for the kind words. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to write, and then you and Big Kahuna buck me up. Thank you both: I needed that.
Jackson
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What a headache for you, and yet you seem to have such a happy, positive attitude about all of it.
Good for you. 🙂
I hope your struggles with it are soon a distant memory.
K.
P.S. In case you noticed, or care ;-), I’m the same K.D. who occasionally comments on here. I just changed to my winter snowman Gravatar, from the previous one with palm trees.
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Of course I know who you are, and of course I care. We have seven regular readers, two of whom are not blood relatives. We cherish both of you. Van Gogh sold one painting in his life, and that was to his agent. Not that we’re a particularly good blog, I just think that we are a lot better than our site’s hit count.
Workamping for Amazon is not particularly remarkable, nor does it leave a lot of time for anything creative. I have difficulty finding things to write about. Kat finds very little worthy of a picture. We are here to replenish the old coffers, at $10 an hour, plus my dog walking money. And it’s something to do in the season when it’s risky to pull an Airstream.
As for my attitude, I am of the progressive bent. I lean forward. We should be able to do anything Europe does, and do some of it, besides the military, better. That includes health care. We gotta stay positive, Big Kahuna.
Jackson
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Hi,
What a lovely response. Thank you. 🙂
Yours is indeed a fine blog, and I read far more than I comment, though I always intend to comment more.
For topics, might Kat give us insight into Amazon’s inner workings?
Perhaps she has had a glimpse of one of their delivery drones? 😀
I’m with you about being positive, leaning forward, etc. It’s important overall, and we also attract what we think.
Mahalo. You noticed. How nice! You may be the only one. 🙂
When I first chose that word, I thought it meant tenacious, stubborn—in a good way—but perhaps the meaning may not be quite so affirmative.
I still like to think that it is, and in any case, it’s too late now. 😉
By the way, I am not Hawaiian, but fell in love with the place when I visited it once upon a time.
A shout-out to Emily, from Big Kahuna.
K.
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Waving at Big Kahuna! 🙂
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Okay, it’s done! I have managed to get through the process of applying for an ACA plan. After finally getting my account straightened out (that took a couple of months), I got through the online application process in four hours with only two phone calls. Ha!
I wanted to point out the excellent summaries/information in a couple of other places that I only found AFTER I applied. But fortunately, I think I got it right — a PPO plan with a nationwide BCBS network.
https://href.li/?http://www.wheelingit.us/2014/02/28/the-aca-aka-obamacare-its-impacts-on-fulltime-rv-health-insurance/
http://www.rv-dreams.com/affordable-care-act.html
http://rverhealthinsurance.com/affordable-care-act-obamacare-and-health-insurance/
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Congratulations, Em! Time will tell, but I think middle class people are going to love the ACA. And the rules require it to get better for multi-state people each of the next three years.
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