It was anything but easy, but after four months of sporadically trying, I'm finally enrolled in "Obamacare," and will be saving approximately $1,200 a year due to it (in comparison to my old plan).
I created my profile in late December of last year, and while the site was running slightly better than it had been in early October, it still wasn't cooperating with me very well, so I decided to give it up until the new year. Slowly, but surely, I started filling out the application, which was taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. Then, as of March, I had finally gone through all of my 27 healthcare options and made my decision. Unfortunately, after I clicked on my selections for both a healthcare and dental plan, once I clicked "review and confirm," a screen popped up, which said, "$0 premium - click confirm." While I had wished that was accurate, $0 is a far cry from $246, and I knew something had gone awry. When I clicked "confirm," a red error-box popped up, with the error ID 500.300586. It told me to log off, wait 30 minutes, and try again, and if that didn't work, to call a representative at the marketplace. When I tried again and was greeted with the same result, I decided to research the error, and ask around on Twitter, before calling. Unfortunately, the only advice I received was to: 1) Clear my cookies/cache and try again (that didn't work) and 2) Remove my application and make a new one (that didn't sound right). So, I then decided to go to the phone...
For my first call, I was on hold for approximately 45 minutes. The guy I talked to was kind, but I could tell he was tired, perhaps slightly irritated due to all of the problems people were having, and after about an hour of talking and being put on hold multiple times, he finally decided to have another person at a separate department look over my application, see if they could fix the error, and then call me back between the hours of 6 and 9 pm that following week. I never got that call.
When I called again this past Sunday and informed another representative about the situation, she said they didn't have me down for a call-back, and again said they'd have someone at a different department look over my app, see if they could work around the error, and give me a call between 6 and 9 pm over the next couple of days. Once again, that didn't happen.
So at 9 pm last night, I decided to call yet again - given the fact the tentative second deadline was midnight. The first time I called, I was told by a robot that they couldn't take my call due to too many callers, and hung up on me. I asked around on Twitter about what my options were, before calling back about a half-hour later, being placed on hold for an hour, and then finally talking to a representative. Fortunately, unlike the first two reps I spoke to, this one (Krystal/Crystal) actually knew what she was doing. When going through my application and receiving the same error message that I and the other two reps had received, she decided to take and save a screenshot of it, because, "I've never seen that one before." I kind of chuckled at that and said, "Wow - aren't I the special one?" Maybe that's how I'll garner more name recognition - by having a healthcare.gov error named after me! She then gave me two options: 1) To fill out another application over the phone or 2) To wait for someone to get back to me. Since the "deadline" was midnight and I had gone with that second route two times previously, I decided it was probably for the best to go with option number one. Yeah, I know - I should rephrase that old saying to, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you. Fool me three times, shame on me." Since the rep had all the information in front of her from my previous application, the process didn't take nearly as long as it had the first time through. Not only that, but she found a better deal for me, and half-jokingly said, "You see? You were lucky to get stuck on the site for so long." Perhaps she's right in a way, but due to how frustrating the experience was at times, I hope to never get that "lucky" again. In any case, as of approximately 11 pm last night, after four months of trying, I was officially enrolled in "Obamacare," and for as time-consuming and frustrating as the experience was at times, in the end, it was all worth it. Hopefully the website continues to improve and the news surrounding the healthcare bill continues to trend in a positive direction. Thanks again to Krystal/Crystal for all her help last night. After two years of being without healthcare, partially due to pre-existing-condition rejection letters, I'll finally be covered as of May 1st. Thanks, Obama.
I created my profile in late December of last year, and while the site was running slightly better than it had been in early October, it still wasn't cooperating with me very well, so I decided to give it up until the new year. Slowly, but surely, I started filling out the application, which was taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. Then, as of March, I had finally gone through all of my 27 healthcare options and made my decision. Unfortunately, after I clicked on my selections for both a healthcare and dental plan, once I clicked "review and confirm," a screen popped up, which said, "$0 premium - click confirm." While I had wished that was accurate, $0 is a far cry from $246, and I knew something had gone awry. When I clicked "confirm," a red error-box popped up, with the error ID 500.300586. It told me to log off, wait 30 minutes, and try again, and if that didn't work, to call a representative at the marketplace. When I tried again and was greeted with the same result, I decided to research the error, and ask around on Twitter, before calling. Unfortunately, the only advice I received was to: 1) Clear my cookies/cache and try again (that didn't work) and 2) Remove my application and make a new one (that didn't sound right). So, I then decided to go to the phone...
For my first call, I was on hold for approximately 45 minutes. The guy I talked to was kind, but I could tell he was tired, perhaps slightly irritated due to all of the problems people were having, and after about an hour of talking and being put on hold multiple times, he finally decided to have another person at a separate department look over my application, see if they could fix the error, and then call me back between the hours of 6 and 9 pm that following week. I never got that call.
When I called again this past Sunday and informed another representative about the situation, she said they didn't have me down for a call-back, and again said they'd have someone at a different department look over my app, see if they could work around the error, and give me a call between 6 and 9 pm over the next couple of days. Once again, that didn't happen.
So at 9 pm last night, I decided to call yet again - given the fact the tentative second deadline was midnight. The first time I called, I was told by a robot that they couldn't take my call due to too many callers, and hung up on me. I asked around on Twitter about what my options were, before calling back about a half-hour later, being placed on hold for an hour, and then finally talking to a representative. Fortunately, unlike the first two reps I spoke to, this one (Krystal/Crystal) actually knew what she was doing. When going through my application and receiving the same error message that I and the other two reps had received, she decided to take and save a screenshot of it, because, "I've never seen that one before." I kind of chuckled at that and said, "Wow - aren't I the special one?" Maybe that's how I'll garner more name recognition - by having a healthcare.gov error named after me! She then gave me two options: 1) To fill out another application over the phone or 2) To wait for someone to get back to me. Since the "deadline" was midnight and I had gone with that second route two times previously, I decided it was probably for the best to go with option number one. Yeah, I know - I should rephrase that old saying to, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you. Fool me three times, shame on me." Since the rep had all the information in front of her from my previous application, the process didn't take nearly as long as it had the first time through. Not only that, but she found a better deal for me, and half-jokingly said, "You see? You were lucky to get stuck on the site for so long." Perhaps she's right in a way, but due to how frustrating the experience was at times, I hope to never get that "lucky" again. In any case, as of approximately 11 pm last night, after four months of trying, I was officially enrolled in "Obamacare," and for as time-consuming and frustrating as the experience was at times, in the end, it was all worth it. Hopefully the website continues to improve and the news surrounding the healthcare bill continues to trend in a positive direction. Thanks again to Krystal/Crystal for all her help last night. After two years of being without healthcare, partially due to pre-existing-condition rejection letters, I'll finally be covered as of May 1st. Thanks, Obama.
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