The Obama administration is launching a full court press to get people to sign up for federal and state health insurance exchanges in advance of the March 31 open enrollment deadline for coverage in 2014.
As part of that effort, Health and Human Services Secretary and head Obamacare cheerleader Kathleen Sebelius is reaching out to groups around the country to encourage people to sign up, including freelancers and other self-employeds who may have gone without health insurance in the past.
On Wednesday, Sebelius talked with 20 bloggers affiliated with the women’s blog network BlogHer on a conference call about the Obamacare health exchanges. I was lucky enough to be asked to be part of that group. (You can read tweets from the call on Twitter by following the hashtags #BlogHer and #GetCoverage.)
Calling herself a mom, grandmother and blogger, Sebelius spent a good portion of the 30-minute call urging fellow bloggers to help spread the word about the benefits of enrolling in health insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act.
To date, about 4.2 million people have joined state run plans, or the federal exchange that’s available in states that opted not to run their own. Under Obamacare, an additional 3 million young adults have been added to their parents’ health coverage, and 9 million children and adults have qualified for Medicaid benefits that were expanded under the plan, Sebelius said.
While thoses numbers sound impressive, they’re below what had been expected, thanks in part to initial problems with the Healthcare.gov website and state exchange’s online marketplaces, some of which are ongoing.
Sebelius predicted the numbers will keep growing. “Every day we have people enrolled, we have advocates on the ground to fix the things that need fixing,” she said.
Obamacare Fixing Freelancers’ Health Care Woes
During the call, two BlogHer bloggers shared Obamacare success stories. In 2012, Laurie White experienced a personal crisis and left a full-time job that had included medical benefits. She started freelancing, and went without health care for two years, even though she had issues that she knew she needed to take care of, because the prices where too high, she said on the call. Encouraged by a friend, she filled out the online marketplace application form late last December, and got her health insurance coverage approved in early January — an event she chronicled on Instagram and in this post on her blog.
“These things affect life choices,” White said on the call. “I still can’t believe I can go to my doctor and it’s $20.”
Blogger, freelancer and single mom Dresden Shumaker shared how she didn’t have health insurance, something that became an issue last year when “something didn’t feel right,” she said. She was used to paying cash to visit her primary care doctor, but there was no way she could afford the $6,000 it was going to cost her for exploratory tests. That was October. Her doctor suggested she wait until she could get coverage through Obamacare, which she did – not that it was easy. “It was hard to find out that I might have a massive list of things wrong but had to take a knee because” of not having insurance, she said.
Today Shumaker is covered under the health exchange and is starting to get tests done. “As a mom, if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t be a parent,” she says. “It’s not just for you, if you have kids and something happens to you and it’s $6,000, that devastates your entire family.”
More Questions about Obamacare
Earlier this week, I asked freelancers what questions they had for Sebelius. During Wednesday’s call, I had the chance to ask one several writers and other freelancers sent me. The question: what can you do if your preferred doctor or hospital isn’t part of a plan available under the exchange in your area, or opts to be in a plan, then changes their mind?
Sebelius’ answer: “It’s a tough problem because, as you know, these are private plans in the private marketplace. Blue Cross/Blue Shield (for example) negotiates with doctors and hospitals to be part of that network, it’s not something directed by the government or mandated by it.
“The best hope really is to urge the insurance companies to add the doctor (or hospital) at the next open enrollment period. If they hear from (potential or previous) customers that I would be (in a plan) but my hospital isn’t there and it’s important to me, that changes the dynamic of who’s in the network, and those plans will (act).”
I couldn’t ask any of the other questions I’d prepared or people sent me. But I can post them here. If you’ve registered with the health exchange in your state or through Healthcare.gov, and have information that would help answer one of these questions, please feel free to leave a comment.
- We have been told that Obamacare is a step toward better. What is being done to move beyond Obamacare to universal coverage? – C. A.
- What are they going to do about projected shortages of primary care physicians and maybe other specialities? I have heard the joke you may have coverage but not be able to find a physician. Also, is (the Affordable Care Act) changing the insurance for people working for large companies? – C.M.
I will continue writing about Obamacare’s options and benefits for freelancers, along with other issues related to running your own writing business.
Obama care is a very great topic mentioned by the bloggers. I really like to read this topic, and also get many of the information’s from the post. Keep sharing.