Tennessee residents are learning that President Obama did not follow through on one of his key promises about Obamacare- if Americans like their doctor, they will be able to keep them.
Obamacare coverage has been available to its enrollees for just less than a month, but already, problems are rising and Americans are growing weary.
WSMV's Nancy Amons reported two cases of Obamacare enrollees who have been notified that they will no longer be able to see doctors they were able to visit when they were on their previous plan.
Shawnna Simpson’s fifteen year old daughter was hurt last week in a cheerleading accident. Simpson called her family doctor and learned that they do not accept her current health insurance plan, BlueCross Network E.
"We have health insurance at this point that is worthless," Simpson said of the plan that she pays $600 a month for.
She has not heard from anyone since.
Simpson has been on the phone with the healthcare exchange, trying to find a family doctor in her county that accepts her plan, but has yet to find one.
"We can’t use it in the county that we live" she said.
BlueCross Network E is a micro network – a very small network with limited doctors and hospitals. Neither Vanderbilt nor TriStar are in the network.
Sadly, Simpson is not alone. Many other individuals are also finding out that their health insurance plans are not being accepted anymore by their doctors.
One such example is David Pearce. Pearce was looking forward to using his new plan, but upon his visit to his doctor, he was told that the practice no longer accepts his health plan.
"I handed her [the receptionist] my card, and the girl kind of looked at it and got that deer-in-headlights look and says ‘Um, I’ll be right back.’"
Pearce was told that his doctor doesn’t accept BlueCross Network E either.
Simpson expressed her frustration with the President’s health exchange program, telling WSMV: "Obamacare is not working. There are a lot of issues and a lot of people who probably have the same issues that we had that just don’t know it yet, until they try to use it.