STUMP » Articles » Obamacare Watch: 3 Feb 2014 — Exchange Screwup? Sucks to be You. » 3 February 2014, 16:42

So, let’s say you manage to get through the Obamacare exchange process because you really need to keep health coverage. Especially since you have an upcoming surgery scheduled.

But let’s say a few details got screwed up. Like what your income is, so you end up not getting any of the premium credits ahead of time and are paying full freight.

You’re told to not worry and just fix it later. In regular insurance, that sort of thing happens all the time – some enrollment details get screwed up and you have to fix it (and your premiums get fixed).

Of course, that’s not government-run “business”. In Obamacare, you’re just plain screwed:

Tens of thousands of people who discovered that HealthCare.gov made mistakes as they were signing up for a health plan are confronting a new roadblock: The government cannot yet fix the errors.

Roughly 22,000 Americans have filed appeals with the government to try to get mistakes corrected, according to internal government data obtained by The Washington Post. They contend that the computer system for the new federal online marketplace charged them too much for health insurance, steered them into the wrong insurance program or denied them coverage entirely.

For now, the appeals are sitting, untouched, inside a government computer. And an unknown number of consumers who are trying to get help through less formal means — by calling the health-care marketplace directly — are told that HealthCare.gov’s computer system is not yet allowing federal workers to go into enrollment records and change them, according to individuals inside and outside the government who are familiar with the situation.
….
The Obama administration has not made public the fact that the appeals system for the online marketplace is not working. In recent weeks, legal advocates have been pressing administration officials, pointing out that rules for the online marketplace, created by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, guarantee due-process rights to timely hearings for Americans who think they have been improperly denied insurance or subsidies.

When I posted this story on the Actuarial Outpost, one person commented that there should be a class action lawsuit.

Anybody know if the federal government allows class action suits against itself?

IANAL, but I’m pretty sure the answer is you’re screwed.

The solution here is not a lawsuit, but a political one (i.e., vote the bums out). I cannot tell you how much my heart danced on Henry Waxman’s political grave when I heard he wasn’t running again (HEY PELOSI!!!!), but let’s retire several more, eh?

Therefore, OBAMACARE MUST BE DESTROYED.