'They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!': Obamacare
confusion reigns as frustrated patients walk out of hospitals without
treatment
No card, no service: Hundreds of thousands of Americans are likely in
health-insurance limbo with no proof of insurance as the new year begins
- MailOnline
spoke with patients who were told they would have to pay their bills in
full if they couldn't prove they had insurance
- One was faced with a $3,000 hospital room charge and opted to leave the hospital after experiencing chest pains
- 'Should I be in the hospital? Probably,' she said
- Another, coughing in the cold, walked out without receiving a needed chest x-ray
- Consumers face sticker-shock from medical costs under the new Obamacare system, made worse if they can't prove they're insured
- As many as one-third of new enrollees' applications have seen problems when the government transmits them to insurance companies
By
David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
PUBLISHED:
15:57 EST, 2 January 2014
|
UPDATED:
10:15 EST, 3 January 2014
Hospital staff in Northern Virginia
are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they
can't determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Patients
in a close-in DC suburb who think they've signed up for new insurance
plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force,
and health care administrators aren't taking their word for it.
In
place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now
facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can't
afford.
'They had no
idea if my insurance was active or not!' a coughing Maria Galvez told
MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of
Springfield.
She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray.
'The
people in there told me that since I didn't have an insurance card, I
would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray,' Galvez said, her young
daughter in tow. 'It's not fair – you know, I signed up last week like I
was supposed to.'
The x-ray's cost, she was told, would likely be more than $500.
Hospital staff in Northern Virginia
are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they
can't determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Patients
in a close-in DC suburb who think they've signed up for new insurance
plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force,
and health care administrators aren't taking their word for it.
In
place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now
facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can't
afford.
'They had no
idea if my insurance was active or not!' a coughing Maria Galvez told
MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of
Springfield.
She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray.
'The
people in there told me that since I didn't have an insurance card, I
would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray,' Galvez said, her young
daughter in tow. 'It's not fair – you know, I signed up last week like I
was supposed to.'
The x-ray's cost, she was told, would likely be more than $500.
'Some may have paid, some may have not,' she conceded.
It's unlikely that a valid insurance card would have changed Galvez' fortunes, however.
Her Carefirst plan, identified on the
Obamacare website as BlueChoice Plus Bronze, carries a $5,500
per-person deductible for 2014 – an amount she would have to pay
out-of-pocket before her coverage would apply to medical expenses.
The Inova radiology department wouldn't speak with MailOnline, and Carefirst did not respond to a request for comment.
A
similar situation frustrated Mary, an African-American woman small
businesswoman who asked MailOnline not to publish her last name. She was
leaving the Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia with two
family members.
'I had
chest pains last night, and they took me in the emergency room,' Mary
said. 'They told me they were going to admit me, but when I told them I
hadn't heard from my insurance company since I signed up, they changed
their tune.'
She told
MailOnline that a nurse advised her that her bill would go up by at
least $3,000 if she were admitted for a day, and her doctor told her the
decision was up to her.
MUCH more here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2532869/They-no-idea-insurance-active-not-At-Virginia-hospitals-Obamacare-confusion-reigns-frustrated-patients-walk-out.html
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