A Florida woman says that her experience with Obamacare- from start to finish- was a nightmare.
Melissa Battles, a single unemployed mother, was in need of healthcare for her and her sons. Hoping for quick, reliable coverage, she turned to Obamacare.
Enrolling in Obamacare, she said, was a mess. "When I tried to enroll my entire family- I enrolled online- it is very convoluted and it takes a very long time to enroll…" she told WOFL-FL.
She qualified for a subsidy, but was bounced back and forth regarding the extent of care available for her Autistic son.
Battles explained that as she tried to enroll her son in HealthyKids, she was met with more red tape.
Soon after enrolling, she got a full time job that offered healthcare.
She contacted her insurer, Florida Health Care Plans, to terminate her policy. They told her she could not disenroll from her policy with them, instructing her to do it with the marketplace.
Battles revealed, "I was blown away that they had not thought forward enough to realize that people were going to disenroll. This is going to be a common practice."
The first time she called the marketplace, she was placed on hold for 49 minutes. Finally, a representative answered, only to tell her that they could not resolve her problem, and subsequently transferred her to a specialist. The specialist was not able to disenroll her and thus referred her to an Event Resolution Center. The Center did not have an email address, direct number, or address to file a complaint- only a 1-800 number.
She was able to reach healthcare.gov and was told that she could terminate her policy next month, after her other coverage began. She was forced to pay twice for health insurance.
"I hate to say it, but if you don’t have to go through the marketplace, don’t," Battles warned Americans.