Enrolling in healthcare.gov is not easy. In Alaska, just 53 people enrolled in the first month. Anchorage hair stylist Lara Imler is . Now though, after she discovered problems with her application, Imler wants to cancel her enrollment.
Lara Imler tries, and fails, to cancel her policy on healthcare.gov (Photo by Annie Feidt/Alaska Public Radio Network).
鈥淚 don鈥檛 even know how to feel about the whole thing anymore because I can鈥檛 even get anyone who has an answer to help,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just such a lost cause at this point.鈥
A few things went wrong with Imler鈥檚 healthcare.gov application. First, according to the website, she successfully enrolled in a health plan. But her new insurance company, , didn鈥檛 have her application. When she called the healthcare.gov hotline number, no one could help her figure out what went wrong. Then she found out the website miscalculated her subsidy amount. She was supposed to receive a monthly subsidy of $366, but the website only let her use $315.
鈥淭he subsidy issue is weird,鈥 she says. 鈥淚f you look at my profile on the website it shows my full subsidy, but it says I鈥檓 only using part of it. So they know I鈥檝e got a screwed up subsidy but they don鈥檛 know what to do with it. There鈥檚 no one directly you can talk to, to say, 鈥楬ey my subsidy is on there. How do I apply for all of it?鈥欌
It turns out everyone鈥檚 subsidy in Alaska was miscalculated. , a benefits consulting group, discovered the error in mid October and suspended enrollments. It took two weeks for the the Health and Human Services Department to resolve the issue. Since then, Enroll Alaska has signed up about 80 people in the marketplace. Chief Operating Officer Tyann Boling says half the people her insurance agents sit down with have tried to navigate healthcare.gov on their own and given up.
鈥淭his is not an easy process. I think even if this website was functioning at 100 percent this would not be an easy process,鈥 Boling says. 鈥淭his is complicated. If you click on one wrong thing, there鈥檚 no back buttons, it can be a really, really nasty process to go through.鈥
Boling is frustrated with the website, but not as frustrated as Lara Imler. After weeks of trying 鈥 and failing 鈥 to make her application work, Imler wants a break from healthcare.gov.
She never got a packet from her insurance company asking her to pay the first premium. She figures canceling the plan 鈥 with the chance to start fresh later 鈥 is her best option.
So on a recent morning, she sat down in her living room, with her laptop and a cup of coffee to try to resolve her difficulties鈥攂ut not without frustration.
鈥淚鈥檝e had to change my password about four times. Oh you know what, I have it written down. I cheated! There it is,鈥 she says.
The site logs Imler in pretty quickly. And after a few clicks she finds her enrollment information:
The application that she finished on Oct. 24 says, 鈥渟tatus, complete.鈥 Imler clicks on the actual application and scrolls down to 聽an ominous looking red icon that says, 鈥渢erminate coverage.鈥
鈥淪o you hit the terminate button. It says you鈥檝e chosen to end the following coverage. 鈥 You then have to check 鈥業 have fully read and understand that I鈥檓 choosing to terminate coverage,鈥欌 she says. 鈥淭hen you click terminate again and we鈥檒l see what happens.鈥
What happens is nothing. The health plan Imler signed up for is still listed in her profile. She logs out and then back in, and it looks exactly the same. She checks her e-mail for a notice of coverage termination and finds nothing there either. Imler leans back on the couch and looks surprisingly calm about the whole thing:
鈥淚鈥檓 resigned to the fact that it doesn鈥檛 work. No matter what I do, it just doesn鈥檛 work. And this is the improved website.鈥
When she is able to cancel her plan, Imler says she won鈥檛 be quitting healthcare.gov for good. This is a separation, not a divorce. Imler鈥檚 been uninsured for nearly a decade and wants that to change. She plans to log back into the website early next year and is hopeful that signing up for insurance will go a lot more smoothly then.
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes , and Kaiser Health News.