I have a voice

I signed up for Apple Care, our state’s health care exchange. Until  now I’ve paid for my health care out of pocket and that has worked wonderfully well for me. I’d like to continue to do that and have a high deductible policy that covered me in case of disaster but that’s not available to us here.

So, let me tell you what shopping for health care was like.

I have five plans available to me.   Five.  That’s it, just five.  Only two of those plans cover the clinic where my primary care giver practices. None of the plans cover my local hospital.

Community Health Plan of Washington rates two stars on Yelp.  Ugh.  They also don’t have my provider’s clinic in their network.  Oh joy.

Molina Health Care of Washington has complaints filed with BBB that reflect the same lack of customer service and support I’m seeing in reviews on Yelp.  They say they cover my provider but give the number of comments I see that say they said this or that but it wasn’t true am I expected to believe them?  Yeah, not happening.

Amerigroup Washington Inc has BBB complaints and they aren’t pretty . . . and they don’t cover my provider clinic, and this site (health care review) has ugly reviews as well.

Coordinated Care of Washington has mixed (mostly bad) reviews, seven BBB complaints and doesn’t cover my provider.

United Health Care has horrible reviews though they say they have my provider clinic in their network.

By the time I’ve done all my research I am exhausted and depressed and my coverage hasn’t started yet.

So my question to you is . . . mandating everyone have health care isn’t a milestone of progress. It has resulted in a quagmire of incompetence and inefficiency. Next time you have to do anything with your health care coverage and run into a coverage or payment problem exacerbated by the Affordable Care Act and you reach the point where you realize it’s neither affordable nor does it provide care, please remember the government can do NOTHING better than the free market.