Florida consumers hope Obamacare rollout improves

It's time to hit the reset button on Obamacare's enrollment campaign.

After a week of computer glitches and widespread frustration, South Florida consumers who were unable to tap into the newly opened but highly flawed online shopping "exchange" will get another chance this week to compare plans and prices and sign up for a health-insurance plan.

"I'll just wait another couple of days. I'm okay for the time being. I'll let everybody else who's desperate get harangued and harassed with trying to get in," said Howard Allan Lipton, 63, of Weston, a retired lawyer who recently moved to Florida and needs insurance to help pay for treatment of his heart problems.

"I would certainly benefit greatly from having some affordable health insurance," he said. "There's a silent majority of us who very much want this law to succeed."

If the new marketplace website still won't work this week, "navigators" hired to assist consumers are prepared to resort to good old-fashioned paper application forms. The good news, they say, is that a lot of people in South Florida are eager to enroll ? if they can just get beyond the error messages, security snags and website crashes.

Daniel Casey, a freelance photographer from Boynton Beach, came to the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County in West Palm Beach seeking help to enroll. But after an hour of error messages and blank screens, he said he "left feeling pretty frustrated."

Casey, 53, the owner of Daniel Casey Photography, has no health insurance. Although he's not a fan of Obamacare and doesn't agree with government forcing him to buy insurance, he said he went to enroll at his wife's worried insistence, and because "it's a law, and I'm a law-abiding citizen."

Florida's 3.5 million uninsured patients have until Dec. 15 to enroll in coverage that starts Jan. 1, when the Affordable Care Act goes into full effect. Those who don't purchase insurance face a first-year fine of the greater of $95 or 1 percent of income. The amount rises sharply in Year Two.

"We're telling people, 'Don't do what I'm doing, don't frustrate yourself,'" said John Foley, who tried all week to penetrate the website while supervising the navigator program at the Legal Aid Society. By Friday he was finally able to set up an account before the site shut down again.

Foley and others who are trying to carry out the controversial new health-care law fear that last week's snags will turn the public against Obamacare, which has been staunchly opposed by Florida's Republican leaders. "I think for people who are skeptical, this isn't helping," he said.

The Florida Legislature refused to set up a state-run online marketplace, leaving it to Uncle Sam. State Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said last week he had no regrets.

"It would have been a state exchange in name only because there were so many federal rules," Negron said. "So I think we did the right thing. The federal government was obviously encountering some serious problems in rolling this out. I still think, given the fact that the rules were so restrictive, that we really didn't have an option to do a state one."

About 7 million Americans tapped into the federal website ? Healthcare.gov ? during the first two days of the signup. Federal officials would not say how many were in Florida or how many were able to establish an account or enroll in plans.

Stephen Arnold, a retired sailboat captain in Hollywood, got further than most. On Friday, after four days of trying the website, an enrollment specialist at the Broward Community & Family Health Centers Inc. helped him set up an account. When the site crashed once more, specialist Lynore Patrice Dyer gave Arnold advice that worked: Be persistent.

He went home, called the government hotline, and after the second call reached a person who helped him complete his application. Arnold, 58, now will wait three weeks to hear whether he qualifies for low-income assistance so he can determine which plan he can afford.

Getting coverage is important, he said, because he has been unable to find insurance in Florida since moving here a year ago because of a pre-existing condition: bone cancer. Though he said it was "a shame" that he had to spend every day all day trying to work with the online system, Arnold said he expected glitches because lots of people need affordable coverage.

"We're charting new territory," he said. "It shows Obama knew what he was doing. Millions of people out there are interested in this. It's long overdue."

wgibson@Tribune.com or 202-824-8256

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-obamacare-looks-ahead-20131006,0,1342831.story?track=rss

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