latimes.com/health/healthcare/la-fi-obamacare-california-launch-20131002,0,4856547.story
Demand is strong as Obamacare enrollment starts in California
Covered California, the state insurance marketplace, debuts to strong
consumer demand, computer glitches and delays.
By Chad Terhune, Melanie Mason and Maeve Reston
8:31 PM PDT, October 1, 2013 - Los Angeles Times
Kicking off a historic healthcare expansion, California's new insurance
market stumbled out of the gate with computer glitches, long hold times and an
online enrollment delay for small businesses.
Still, many consumers rushed to get coverage Tuesday when enrollment opened
nationwide as part of President Obama's Affordable Care Act. It was a rocky
start for many government-run insurance exchanges across the country as
computers froze and online enrollment was postponed for several hours.
In California, officials nonetheless took heart at the stronger-than-expected
response: about 5 million online hits and more than 17,000 calls.
Full coverage: Obamacare rolls out
"It was a huge outpouring of interest, which is good news," said Peter Lee,
executive director of Covered
California, the new state marketplace. "Today was just the starting
point."
The federal law marks the biggest healthcare overhaul since the launch of
Medicare half a century ago. Its fate depends a great deal on how well
California handles the expansion, given the state's size and strong backing.
The flood of first-day inquiries quickly overwhelmed the state's $313-million
enrollment system and its call centers, making it difficult for many to complete
applications.
County health officials complained they couldn't access the state's computer
system, forcing them to fill out applications by hand. In a disappointment to
some business groups, the exchange said Tuesday that it had postponed online
enrollment for small employers until November.
But many took the delays in stride. As expected, those with chronic illnesses
and huge medical bills showed up first.
"The website was crazy busy. It's like Obamacare just released a new iPhone,"
said Peter Nowack, a 60-year-old marketing consultant in Oakland who tried
unsuccessfully to enroll first thing Tuesday.
Nowack pays $1,200 a month for his health insurance now because of
preexisting medical conditions. A similar policy in the exchange could cost him
about half that much.
To remedy the immediate service issues, Covered California said it would take
down its website overnight for technical work and continue to hire more staff.
Exchange officials emphasized that they have time to fix the problems before
coverage takes effect Jan. 1; enrollment runs through March 31. The state
doesn't plan to disclose enrollment numbers until mid-November.
Some healthcare experts warned that patience could run out if problems
persist. The enrollment issues are sure to embolden the law's critics and
potentially turn off consumers who are already skeptical about a massive
government program.
"This is a setback for those who are trying to promote this program," said
Robert Laszewski, a healthcare industry consultant in Virginia. "There is
already so much cynicism about Obamacare to start with that these glitches feed
into the narrative from opponents that this will be a train wreck."
Holland VanDieren, 63, of Pasadena, tried logging on to the state website at
about midnight but got error messages. She pays nearly $300 a month for her
high-deductible health plan now.
"There are a lot of bugs to be ironed out," she said. "I'm afraid prices will
go up and our healthcare will decline."
One of the major risks is that such obstacles will turn off the young and
healthy. Their enrollment is crucial for the exchange, which needs those
customers to offset the high costs of older, sicker patients.
Rosa Rodriguez, 45 and uninsured, has struggled for years with rheumatoid
arthritis, a bum knee and high blood pressure, which often go untreated. Eager
to get insurance, she arrived at a Molina Healthcare clinic in Fontana just as
it opened Tuesday.
Rodriguez and her husband lost their previous health coverage when he lost
his job two years ago. And the Rialto couple earned too much to qualify for
Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. She filled out a form at the clinic and
was told she would be contacted later this week by a representative from Molina,
one of 12 health insurers selling policies in the exchange.
"I'm definitely going to sign up," she said.
But help wasn't so readily available elsewhere. In downtown Los Angeles near
skid row, workers at the Center for Community Health said people with questions
about Obamacare would have to come back Thursday. Employees there still need to
wrap up state training before they can enroll people in health insurance, said
Erik Martinez, the center's project coordinator.
Likewise, many hospitals across the state aren't ready to help with
enrollment because of training delays. Covered California says
it needs about 16,000 enrollment counselors statewide, but fewer than 1,000 of
those workers had been approved as of last count. "We are staffing up and
training more people each day," said Ken Wood, a senior advisor at Covered
California.
Despite the first-day glitches, officials struck a celebratory tone at events
across the state. Lee, the exchange's executive director, started off the day at
a state call center with a New Year's Eve-style countdown in the final seconds
before 8 a.m., when the marketplace opened.
By the end of the day, Covered California was throwing a festival-style party
at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, sending salsa dancers through the
crowd to pull guests to their feet and putting a troupe of Bollywood-style
performers on stage to belly dance in midriff-baring pink and blue skirts.
Dr. Marc Eckstein, a professor of emergency medicine at USC's Keck School of
Medicine who trains medical students at L.A. County-USC Medical Center, said he
doesn't expect the overhaul to change life for most of the patients he sees any
time soon. An estimated 70% of the hospital's patients are uninsured, and most
probably know little about Obamacare, Eckstein said.
"At the local level," he said, "it's going to take a while to get the word
out."
At Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, 49-year-old Tim Medeiros was waiting
for his son, who was undergoing a medical procedure. The self-employed mediator
hoped someone at the hospital could give him details about the new insurance
options. His insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, recently informed him that his monthly
premiums would jump to $318 a month.
"Obamacare sounds like it will reduce some of those costs," Medeiros said.
"But we'll see how this goes."
chad.terhune@latimes.com
melanie.mason@latimes.com
maeve.reston@latimes.com
Times staff writers Soumya Karlamangla, Paresh Dave and Eryn Brown
contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2013, Los
Angeles Times