Applying for benefits under President Obama’s health care plan could be as lengthy and complex as doing your taxes.
A draft of the application runs 15 pages for a three-person family. The online version has 21 steps, some with additional questions.
Proof of identity and income will be required, and applications will be checked by three federal agencies, including the IRS. The first step of the lengthy process will determine if you qualify for financial assistance.
Once you’re finished with that part, actually picking a health plan will require additional steps, plus a basic understanding of insurance jargon. Seven months before the Oct. 1 start of enrollment season for millions of uninsured Americans, the idea that getting health insurance could be as easy as shopping online at Amazon or Travelocity is starting to look like wishful thinking.
Under Obamacare, all Americans will be required to have some kind of health insurance. Some are concerned that a lot of uninsured people will be overwhelmed and simply give up.
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, called on the administration to simplify the form and provide counselors to help people navigate the two processes, calling them “enormously time consuming and complex.” Drafts of the paper application and a 60-page description of the online version were quietly posted online by the Health and Human Services Department, seeking feedback from industry and consumer groups.
Those materials, along with a recent HHS presentation to insurers, run counter to the vision of simplicity promoted by administration officials. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates more than 4.3 million applications for financial assistance in 2014.
The new coverage is slated to begin January 1, 2014. HHS spokeswoman Erin Shields Britt said in a statement the application is a work in progress, “being refined thanks to public input.”
