Oregon Health Exchange Sends Customers Potential 'Dear John' Letter

It's not you, Oregonians, it's them. It was clear from the start that the relationship wasn't exactly working out. Now Oregon's health exchange is warning its customers that it may be over and they should look elsewhere for love and support from a health insurance provider.
From The Oregonian:
Oregon's troubled health insurance exchange began robocalling applicants Friday, warning them that if they don't receive enrollment confirmation by Monday, they should seek coverage elsewhere for Jan. 1.
"If you haven't heard from us by Dec. 23, it is unlikely your application will be processed for Jan. 1 insurance coverage," a woman's voice on the pre-recorded call from Cover Oregon says. "If you want to be sure you have insurance coverage starting Jan. 1, you have other options."
It's yet another sign that the health insurance exchange's technological breakdowns will prevent some -- perhaps many -- Oregonians from getting subsidized coverage Jan. 1, despite Gov. John Kitzhaber's previous assurances otherwise. Out of more than 65,000 applicants, the exchange reports enrolling nearly 30,000, but only about 11,000 of them in private insurance plans.
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The Christmas gifts just keep coming. What a year this is!
To the tune of "Long Live Oregon"
? Each lawyer and hippie and layabout dad
? Crooked politician and unemployed grad
? We fleeced you for millions our
? neighbors and friends
? Suckers of Oregon!
Please throw in a line about "It's only fair".
That one makes me see red every time I hear it.
? We whined and we cried
? and held up dumb signs
? made celebrity mash-ups
? with outrageous lies
? When no signed up
? we blamed Republicans
? Still dumb in Oregon!
Their tears are so yummy and sweet and flow so freely. I think I'm getting schadenfreudabetes from drink so many.
*drinking* I'm so excited, I can barely type.
Sup the yummy tears as we watch the Obamacare burn.
Just as long as they don't convince everyone that Obamacare's only problems revolve solely around the website/ exchanges. One day (Maybe around the year 3000 or so) the exchanges will be fixed, and the forces of good can't let the Serious People declare mission accomplished and walk onto their next disaster.
Maybe I didn't treat you
Quite as good as I should have
If I made you feel second best
Oregon, I'm sorry I was blind
You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind
Which way did Oregon go in the 2012 election?
Just to be fair I have to admit it probably would not have made much difference, but their endorsement speaks volumes.
Our state is definitely Team Blue, thanks largely to the Portland metro region.
Well, pretty much the entire I5 corridor from Eugene on up.
Will January 1, 2014 prove to be the real Y2K disaster?
This 'deadline' is it one of those events that will have an immediate impact on the lives of people?
Nope. Won't have an impact until they pay their taxes for 2014 (due April 15, 2015).
...or get the bill for their emergency appendectomy and discover they don't have insurance.
Don't worry. His Majesty will issue an Edict instructing all health care providers to accept and treat any patient who comes to them. They will be assured of appropriate payment at some future date.
Appropriate as in "As little as we want and FYTW"
"health care providers to accept and treat any patient who comes to them"
I thought by law they can't refuse anyone?
They only can't refuse anyone in an emergency room. For now.
Ah.
I don't get something.What are HSC's for? I thought they were "supposed" to provide health to everyone ans how does Medicare/aid work in all this?
I know. An essay can be written. But trying to get a firm grip on this.
To think I invested in a medical lab in Florida. They went over all this with me but it was incredibly convoluted to remember on first hearing.
I thought by law they can't refuse anyone?
I *believe* that only applies to emergency care.
In this Obamanation, emergency will soon be redefined so that EMTALA covers preventative medicine.
Tomorrow's the big day, right? The day everybody who hasn't yet been exempted has to be signed up?
What is that, 3 or 4 people then?
Obama will exempt them, too.
Does this mean they're going to take down that obnoxious "long live Oregonians" billboard by my house? Because every time I see that damned thing, I want to punch the pretentious Portlandian hipster that designed it.
No, but they did stop running the TV ads.
Well, they said they were going to, anyway. I don't watch much local TV so I have no fucking clue if they did or not.
I live in Oregon.
I opted to steer clear of the exchange because it has been such a mess and re-up my previous ("inferior", "substandard", now-technically-illegal) insurance. Thanks Obama decree!
The most obnoxious part of this whole mess is that even though the website doesn't work at all, they are still running lots of Cover Oregon ads -- online, TV and radio. Besides the ads being annoying, they are wasting tons of money. Who else would plow ahead with their multi-million dollar ad campaign when their product doesn't even work?
The cronies who got the ad contracts and media cheerleaders expect to be paid, so keep the ad campaign rolling.
I'm just gonna apply my experience in life: It's all cronyism from this point forward.
Well they have to reward the Portland hipsters for getting out of bed early enough to vote somehow.
Well they have to reward the Portland hipsters for getting out of bed early enough to vote somehow.
Doh !
Speaking of the unselfawareness of the Faithful, when do you suppose they'll stop using that "Law of the Land" war cry?
It's the Law of the Land, but in His almighty wisdom, the Ascended One is best qualified to carry out its implementation as He deems best.
Best way to fluster them into a contradiction is to point out all the shit that used to be the "Law of the land so deal with it".
Or some things that still are, like sodomy laws.
Man, I missed that one. Is the sodomy mandate enforced with a penaltax?
There's a "good faith" exemption that is pretty easy to get if you just act like a gay stereotype while looking ugly.
Comments are, unsurprisingly, of the "Guilty until proven innocent" variety.
So Sigma Chi Beta Rho can't have lighters, but they can still have matches? Makes perfect sense if you don't think about it. Way to take rape seriously MSU!
Wrong thread.
D'oh!
I've done that
Haven't we all.
I do glance at the article before I reply.
Meanwhile, NYT suddenly gets interested:
While the number of people who just miss qualifying for subsidies is unclear, many of them have made their frustration known, helping fuel criticism of the law in recent weeks. Like the Chapmans, hundreds of thousands of people have received notices that their existing plans are being canceled and that they must now pay more for new coverage.
In an effort to address that frustration, the Obama administration announced on Thursday that it would permit people whose plans had been canceled to buy bare-bones catastrophic plans, which are less expensive but offer minimal coverage. Those plans have always been available to people under 30 and to those who can prove that the least expensive plan in their area is not affordable. But the announcement does not address the concerns of those who would like to buy better coverage, yet find premiums in their area too expensive.
David Oscar, an insurance broker in New Jersey, another high-cost state, said many of his clients had been disappointed to learn that the premiums were much more expensive than they had expected.
"They're frustrated," he said. "Everybody was thinking that Obamacare was going to come in with more affordable rates. Well, they're not more affordable."
But he PROMISED!
..."it would permit people whose plans had been canceled to buy bare-bones catastrophic plans, which are less expensive but offer minimal coverage."...
OH NO! JUNK Plans!
What did people expect? (I know, they expected Unicorns to pop out of the ether and to give them free insurance.) As I've mentioned before, my mom is complaining about how the plans with the coverage that she wants would cost virtually the same amount as they did before. (That is not counting the tax credits.)
andarm16|12.22.13 @ 11:07PM|#
"What did people expect?"...
I don't think the people in question are quite as stupid as you presume. I think they simply expected that *their* insurance would be cheaper at the expense of 'rich' people.
They are stupid enough to presume that they aren't the Jews (if you'll forgive the Godwin); they thought they had another couple of victim groups left before it bit them in the ass.
Ha, ha!
I wasn't saying anyone was stupid, I was just commenting that the government / progressive media has a lot of people convinced that the laws of supply and demand / unintended consequences are mere fantasies created by the Republicans / 1% / Koch brothers.
the government / progressive media has a lot of people convinced that the laws of supply and demand / unintended consequences are mere fantasies
Again, stupid. Really, really stupid.
I think they simply expected that *their* insurance would be cheaper at the expense of 'rich' people.
That was pretty fucking stupid, for anyone who can do math.
Some experts dismissed the varying effects of the income cutoff, saying the law's main elements benefit most of those who could not previously buy insurance.
"I think that job one was to make sure that the people who clearly have the greatest difficulty affording premiums receive the greatest help," said Ron Pollack, the founding executive director of Families USA, a consumer advocacy group that favored the law.
"We love the middle class, but only when it's convenient."
Good news! The $10M $21M $28M Cover Oregon ad campaign is on hold!
The state's politicians are in full CYA mode. About two weeks ago, emails dumped into the local media as the result of a public records request (right...). All of the news stories were focusing on what a terrible job the private contractor (Oracle) was doing and how unqualified they were, etc etc. My wife was buying it, as intended, until I asked her who's benefiting from those emails and why did they just come out now. Sure enough, a couple of days later the state started making noises about suing Oracle and stopping payments.
Another interesting tidbit from the email dumps. The junior U.S. senator from Oregon (not Wyden) was very involved in the oversight of the rollout of the state exchange. None of the local lapdog media asked the question of why a U.S. senator would be so involved in a state level I.T. project. Did I mention that this senator is up for re-election next year? Not that there's much danger as long there's a D after his name.
I really, really wish that the democrats had some tea party equivalent group that would primary their own incumbents. Yeah, I know they'd prioritize all the wrong issues, but at least they'd keep the incumbents on their toes.
I like Wyden. Obviously I disagree with him on a lot of issues, but at least he's sincere and sticks out his neck on the right side of some issues (e.g. surveillance). Merkley just strikes me as bad in every way.
That would be the problem with any Democrat purity group. The third senator from NY would find himself more likely to be primaried than aww schucks water treader Merkley.
"AP Poll: Obama Health Care Overhaul Top 2013 Story"
[...]
"The glitch-plagued rollout of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was the top news story of 2013,..."
http://www.edgeboston.com/news.....013_story_
CoverOregon may be dead, but its terrible songs will live on forever.
I clicked on that link.
Thats not real. That is a parody, right? It cant be real.
Yes Suthenboy, it's real. The worst is this one.
"Healthcare for all, that seems fair. Cover Oregon is here"
More Cover Oregon videos. Not all are the $28M ads.
Did they just go into Portland Coffee Houses (Of the fair trade cruelty free variety) and choose the most punch able hipster they could find.
Cruetly-free coffee beans?!
They don't grind them; they ask that the bean disassembles itself? Do I have it?
Yes.
There is one non-hipster ad, though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg7fcgtt8hU
Sometimes man you jsut have to roll with it thats all.
http://www.Anon-True.tk
Wanna see how medical decisions are made once they are politicized? Well, if you don't like the answer, hold a rally!
"Monday rally planned for brain-dead Oakland girl"
[...]"Jahi's mother, Nailah Winkfield, released the letter on Saturday, expressing hope that God will eventually "spark her brain awake.""
Uh, yeah, right.
And while we're all sitting around for God, who picks up the tab?
Oh, that's right. The hospital.
I'm thinking about having our palliative care team form a union: "Plug Pullers International". Perhaps we can harness a union for good, rather than evil.