Coastal Insurance Services

Well, the latest deadline to sign up for Obamacare is today (by latest, you can expect it probably will be extended, yet again). The State and Federal websites are overloaded and not functioning properly. So many people waiting till the last minute have overwhelmed them. If you have already tried to sign up, but can't complete your application, because the website doesn't work, you are being given an extension to finish. As long as your application is started (first coup...le pages complete), you have until 4/15/14 to finish. If you don't have an application started, due to "technology challenges" (not just procrastination...), you can still apply through a Certified Insurance Agent, like Coastal Insurance Services. Obama has also decided to use his Czar like "authority" to give these extensions, although the law says something different. Not sure how he is able to change the law without going through the proper legal channels, but who is really watching. Apparently, most of America is not. According to the Constitution, the President does not have the authority to do these things. But, Obama has never had much regard for the Founding Fathers.

If you signed up for a plan through Covered California, you should check to see if you doctors are really on your plan. Covered California's provider search program has had so many problems, it was pulled off line. We have been telling our clients this for a while, but now Covered California has admitted it. They have misled the public about which plans cover which doctors. Aside from admitting their mistake, they are doing NOTHING to help the consumers they misled. That...'s Obamacare for you. They are making you do it, but the problems they make are yours. Check with your doctor before it is too late to change. The deadline is February 15, 2014. After that, you can't change your plan until January 1, 2015. If you need help, let us know. Obama certainly does not have your back.

"I didn't get a harumph outa that guy." Governor William J. Lepetomane President Obama posted on Twitter "6 MILLION Americans have already signed up for coverage thanks to health reform. THAT'S A FACT" He left out the FACT that 89% of the enrollees previously had insurance. ... That means that only 700,000-1,000,000 people got insurance that did not have it before. With all the money and time that has been spent and the massive problems with implementation, it would be fair to say that Obamacare, so far, is a bust. Harumph.

URGENT WARNING!!! Be careful when choosing a plan through Covered California. The provider search still does not work correctly. If you put your doctors in, the results may not be right. The suggested plans may not have your doctors in network, even thought Covered California says so. We have had several clients that chose plans based on the provider network information provided by Covered California only to find out after they enrolled, that their doctors were not really... in the network. Before you make your final decision on your plan, check directly with the carrier to see if your doctor is on the plan. The provider networks available through the Covered California plans are extremely limited. Please reach out to us if you need help researching your doctors. Forward this on to anyone you know that is experiencing trouble with Covered California.

Today is the last day to sign up for insurance with a January 1, 2014 effective date. If you are one of those that waited until the last minute to sign up, you may not be able to. Covered California's website has been overloaded for the last few days and is crawling to almost a complete stand still. Many consumers are reporting that they are unable to sign up. Even as a Certified Insurance Agent, we are having to spend extra time to enroll clients. Website errors and massive traffic have slowed input of applications from 30 minutes to 2+ hours. If anyone is still struggling, we may be able to help, but time is running out.

Coastal Insurance Services is now a Covered California Certified Insurance Agent. We will be able to assist individuals and businesses with quotes and applications through the California health insurance exchange. If you know someone who has questions or needs some help, please have them contact us and we would be glad to help.

WAIT!!!!! If you are interested in checking out and signing up for a plan on California's insurance exchange, coveredca.com, you may want to wait a little bit. You are not able to look at doctor/hospital lists yet. Covered CA claims that function will be available mid-October. ... Before you sign up for a plan, we recommend that you check the doctor lists first. All indications are that the lists will be very limited, which could impact your decision. There is still plenty of time to sign up, so it might not hurt to be a little more patient.

Did you try to go on the exchange website today? I hope you didn't try to call. Yikes! The exchanges got overwhelmed by consumers today and no one got the information they wanted. Remember how the administration and CA gov't have been telling you it would be ready Oct 1? Only sort of true and sort of a lie. It's there (most of it... errr some of it), but the infrastructure is not ready. It may take a little (or a lot) longer to get it going and there will likely conti...nue to have "challenges". Don't feel alone in this, aside from the other millions of consumers looking for answers, the agents are in the dark too. I was on hold today for 47 minutes, only to get the same answer I always get, "I don't know". The highly promoted "Certified Insurance Agents" still don't exist to help consumers. The Covered CA agent contracts won't be ready/available until at least Friday, maybe later. They still need to be approved by the State. Perhaps the exchange should not have waited until the last minute to start working on that part. I guess 3 years was not enough notice. All sarcasm aside, this is a huge undertaking and problems are to be expected. That being said, it would be nice if they stopped lying to us. Either way, we all need to be patient. This is going to take time and will probably very painful and frustrating (not to mention wasteful and expensive, but that is another conversation). Your government needs a "Mulligan" on this one.

Here is why we had been advising our clients to wait on the exchange notices, as we expected them to change. This is a post from my Facebook page for Coastal Insurance Services: "As we expected, the DOL has "punted' on the exchange notices. After the administration postponed the enforcement of the Employer Mandate, it was our opinion there needed to be a modification in the language of the Exchange Notices. The DOL chose to "punt" instead (they couldn't spell "yabba daba do") and will not be enforcing the Oct. 1 distribution deadline:

Here is a simple overview of Obamacare. It doesn't really emphasize the fact premiums are going way up. It also doesn't explain that if you have a decent job, you won't qualify for the subsidies.

Here we go again. The administration's attitude of "its not my money". The delays in Healthcare reform will cost over $10 billion which is less than 1% of the cost of Obamacare. Do the math. $10 billion x 100 = bankruptcy. It's just money...

Obama beat his chest today. So proud of the rebates Obamacare created for consumers. They only spent $1000 to get consumers $100 rebates. On top of that, premiums went up 30% or more and will go up dramatically again next year. We will probably get hit with some more new taxes to cover the tab, since the law doesn't generate enough money to pay for itself. How is this making healthcare more affordable?

Today the House voted to delay the Employer Mandate of Obamacare to 2015, echoing the administration's announcement last week. They are also pushing to to get the Individual Mandate (everyone must have insurance or pay a penalty) to 2015. Sound nice, but again this is not thought out. If we make insurance guaranteed issue and not mandatory, only the sick will enroll, which will drive premiums up even more. Obamacare has turned into a world class debacle. Of course, a Republican bill won't make it through the Democratic Senate. So we don't have to worry about that for now....