I recently began yet another attempt to find affordable health insurance. In a previous blog I wrote about the details that made a particular health plan look promising. Today, the insurer called.
If you ever had any doubts about how inefficient health insurance is handled in this country, try going through the process of attempting to purchase an individual health insurance plan. It brings certain difficulties into sharp, clear, focus.
The last time I had health insurance was when I was working as a teacher. My job came with employer sponsored health insurance. It wasn’t incredibly difficult to fill out the paperwork for that plan, and I was immediately accepted by the insurer (once my employer deemed me eligible for health insurance).
When I got laid off, like so many teachers did a few years ago, I lost my health insurance coverage. Connecting health insurance directly to whether or not a person happens to be fortunate enough to have employment that comes with an employer sponsored health plan has some extremely negative consequences. This became really obvious during the recent recession.
Since then, I’ve been looking for an individual health insurance plan. By “individual”, I mean one that is not connected with an employer. I also mean that I am looking for a health plan that is going to cover only me, because my spouse has health insurance coverage already.
After browsing through HealthCare.gov, I found a health insurance plan that appeared to be affordable. I had many questions that I wanted to ask, but, since it was a Friday, and after 5:00 in the evening, I knew that I could not make contact with the insurer right at that moment.
Instead, I called their phone number, and left a message. I noted exactly which plan I was interested in, gave my name and phone number, and asked to be called back. Today, Monday, a representative did call me back, but I didn’t discover that she had called until hours later.
She called around 8:00 in the morning. I had no way of knowing that the representative would pick that time to call me. Therefore, I stayed up late the night before working on my writing, and slept in. I was still asleep when she called.
It really wouldn’t have mattered, though, if I was awake at that time. My husband works from home, and his job requires the use of the phone lines in our home. He was working at 8:00 in the morning. The insurance representative could not have reached me by phone. So, she left me a message that said that she understands which plan I am interested in, and that she is happy to answer all my questions. She asked for me to call her back.
This experience emphasizes another problem with how health insurance is sold. If I had any way of knowing when the representative would call, or if I could have selected a time for her to call me, it would have been possible for me to plan a time when I would be able to take the call. Instead, I am playing “phone tag”, hoping that when I call back it will be at a time when this representative is able to speak with me.
Image by Pat Pilon on Flickr