Obamacare sign-ups picking up steam in Texas
The tide is turning in Texas on the ACA and will get even better after today`s headlines.
Very positive Dallas Morning News front page stories on the ACA surge in Texas with several examples of people getting great rates on insurance coverage for 2104 for the first time in years.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20131221-obamacare-sign-ups-picking-up-steam-in-texas.ece
"After a slow start in Texas, insurance sign-up under the Affordable Care Act seems to be growing this month as an important deadline looms for those needing immediate coverage.
“I sense that our numbers are picking up dramatically,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said after a round of meetings with federal officials to review the troubled rollout of the new law.
Any such enrollment rush is likely to be tied to Monday’s deadline for anyone wanting their new health insurance plan to kick in next month.
“Monday is the last day to sign up for coverage that starts on Jan. 1,” said Louis Adams, a spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. “But open enrollment continues through March 31.”
A deluge of calls in early December forced the insurance carrier to add 500 customer-assistance representatives to a phone bank covering five states, including Texas, according to its Facebook page."
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Example 1
Diane McCollum: It’s not a ‘free ride,’ but counselor is pleased
Although she is just two years short of Medicare coverage, Diane McCollum has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Affordable Care Act.
McCollum, a 63-year-old mental-health counselor, lost her health care coverage when her job was reduced to part time five years ago. Ironically, her full-time job was cut back after the
state trimmed Medicaid for mental-health services.
“Indigent children with mental-health needs got 1 hour and 15 minutes of therapy each month instead of an hour every week,” McCollum said. “We’re allowed to give more time than that, but it’s without pay. It’s a tragedy for them.”
McCollum, who lives in Lake Highlands, used COBRA to extend her insurance and then found an individual plan that cost nearly $360 a month, a good chunk of her reduced paycheck. And it would have increased to almost $600 next year.
Under the new law, she found a more comprehensive policy, and she qualified for a $200 tax credit that lowers it to $250 monthly, McCollum said.
“I’m not getting a free ride,” she said. “But I’ll have good coverage if I need it.”
Diane McCollum
• Age: 63
• Coverage: Individual
• Tax subsidy: $200 monthly
• Premium: $250 monthly
• Deductible: $7,000"
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Example 2
"Brenda Copple: Costs go down without subsidy
Retiring early as a corporate marketing executive sounded like a good idea a decade ago, said 56-year-old Brenda Copple.
“I was ready to go back to school and reinvent myself,” said Copple, who lives in Uptown.
She also took advantage of COBRA and then looked for a private health plan that would give her the coverage she’d always had. She believed her hours on the treadmill and good health made her an attractive candidate.
But Copple forgot about a test result on her first colonoscopy, offered as part of a comprehensive physical awarded to top executives. It picked up a slight abnormality that turned out to be nothing.
“I was rejected for individual coverage because of that test result,” she said. “They called it a pre-existing condition, and I couldn’t buy insurance anywhere.”
So Copple ended up in the Texas high-risk pool, paying $758 in monthly premiums with a $5,000 annual deductible. Never once did she spend enough per year to put in an insurance claim, she said.
Even though Copple doesn’t qualify for a tax subsidy, her new plan is $20 cheaper a month, and she cut her deductible and out-of-pocket costs to $3,250 a year.
“And I got $40-a-month dental coverage after 10 years without anything,” she said. “I am thrilled.”
Brenda Copple
• Age: 56
• Coverage: Individual
• Tax subsidy: None
• Premium: $738 monthly
• Deductible: $3,250"
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Example 3
Harry O. Davis: Keeping his specialists, reducing costs
When you have a chronic condition that could be fatal, you need to pay attention to the details in your insurance plan, Harry O. Davis said.
The 57-year-old North Dallas consultant lost his group coverage when he sold his small business five years ago. While he doesn’t like to talk specifics about his health, he concedes that someday he might need an organ transplant.
Being relegated to the state’s high-risk pool meant Davis paid the full $5,000 deductible each year, plus $9,000 in total premium costs.
“I feel great now, but I follow every order my doctors give me,” Davis said. “They are kind of amazed at how well I’m doing.”
As Davis shopped this fall for a new plan under Obamacare, his biggest concern was hanging on to those specialists.
He found half a dozen plans that allowed him that access. He chose a gold plan that will reduce his future out-of-pocket costs by about $1,800 a year.
“I had no problem with the health exchanges,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier.”
Harry O. Davis
• Age: 57
• Coverage: Individual
• Tax subsidy: None
• Premium: $662 monthly
• Deductible: $3,250"
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Example 4
Daryn DeZengotita: Partners find way to cover the family
Daryn DeZengotita was uninsured until she met her partner, Celia Barshop, who worked for a company that offered the couple a family health plan. They have two sons.
The coverage lasted until Barshop took a different job that made the family policy too expensive.
Being a self-employed small-business owner, DeZengotita shopped for her own coverage. She found a $656-a-month policy that covered her and the two boys.
But it didn’t provide her much beyond an annual checkup and mammogram, the 48-year-old Rowlett resident said.
Working downtown in a lofty incubator office, DeZengotita said she pored over her insurance options when the federal government began accepting applications in October. She waited patiently to get through when the federal website collapsed.
She found a plan for $414 a month, qualifying for a $63 subsidy. The boys will stay on her plan.
“I love the fact I can keep my doctor,” said DeZengotita, who works 30 hours a week. “I spent so much of my life getting health care at Planned Parenthood that it’s a luxury to have a doctor at all.”
Daryn DeZengotita
• Age: 48
• Coverage: Family
• Tax subsidy: $63 monthly
• Premium: $414 monthly
• Deductible: $6,000
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Example 5
Luis Veloz: ‘I can tell people for the first time I’m going to the doctor’
When he was in second grade, Luis Veloz fell and broke his arm. But he didn’t tell his family about the pain because he was worried it would cost too much to get it fixed.
He knew about medical bills because his uninsured father suffered his first heart attack earlier that year. Veloz remembered the stunned look on his parents’ faces every time they opened a hospital bill.
“People think the kids don’t notice things. But kids know,” said the 20-year-old Veloz, who lives in East Dallas.
He made the best of his pain by writing with the other hand, until his teacher noticed something was wrong. The school nurse diagnosed the broken bone and his mother took him to the doctor for a cast.
His arm would heal, but not his anxiety about medical bills.
When he was a student at Southern Methodist University, studying for his first-semester finals, his father suffered another heart attack. This time, it required open-heart surgery, and the family’s medical bills would top $250,000.
“I was living the American dream,” Veloz said. “But my family needed my help. I realized I could go to school later.”
He worked as a waiter for almost a year without health insurance. But his family’s experience of being uninsured inspired him to join the Texas Organizing Project in 2011. He went door to door last summer explaining how the Affordable Care Act would work.
Last week, he sat down at a computer and picked out an individual health insurance plan that will cost him $114 a month. After he pays the first premium, he plans to schedule his first physical exam. His family will pick a plan early next year.
“I can tell people for the first time I’m going to the doctor,” Veloz said. “Isn’t that awesome?”
Luis Veloz
• Age: 20
• Coverage: Individual
• Tax subsidy: None
• Premium: $114 monthly
• Deductible: $6,000"
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I am so pleased with The Dallas Morning News today for these positive ACA stories.
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