Out of 57 States isn’t one at least progressing forward to a workable exchange?

Via LVRJ

There’s no other way to put it.

The website errors, hours-long customer-service waits, confusion about doctor networks, dismal enrollment numbers and missing insurance cards boil down to one simple fact: The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange is broken.

That’s not to say the problems are irreparable, or that the state-run exchange created by the Affordable Care Act fails all who use its Nevada Health Link website. But right now the system hurts more than helps many users. Widespread dissatisfaction could mean trouble if the exchange doesn’t improve.

Just two groups of people will talk openly about the problems: Patients, who can’t sort out whether they’re covered, and insurance brokers, who hear nonstop from panicky customers unable to get answers from either insurance carriers or the exchange. Insurers and doctors are mostly mum, possibly feeling “a little fear of retribution” from some of the exchange’s powerful players, said one industry source.

But those willing to talk say the system contractor, Xerox, has had trouble meeting deadlines, and exchange officials failed to force the company to prove it could produce on schedule.

Here’s how that affects users, and what the state says it’s doing about it.

PATIENTS

Rebecca Gray said Monday that she’s been trying to buy coverage for a month, but it “has been incredibly difficult to sign up.”

“The website has been down and it is impossible to sign up over the phone,” she wrote the newspaper. “I have yet to actually get through to anyone to talk to them.”

Irene McHone’s journey has taken longer.

McHone and a friend, Ray Ellis, have been trying to sign up McHone since November, when her income went up and she no longer qualified for Medicaid. Ellis estimates he spent 40 hours over two months trying to complete McHone’s application online or by phone. Earlier this month a broker helped Ellis find a plan, but the website’s payment function hasn’t worked. McHone still has no plan.

Since November, McHone, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, has paid $100 a month to keep her oxygen tank flowing. She’s about to run out of medications that cost $300 to $400 a month each without insurance. And she has no idea how she’ll pay to see her cardiologist next month.

“It takes a toll on you. You just wonder what the problem is going to be today,” McHone said. “I just need health care. I don’t want to sit here and die little-by-little every single day.”

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HT 4MNR