I don’t know how many times I’ve written about healthcare, and let me disclaim: I’m sure the intricacies of American healthcare that I’ve experienced are nothing, in the greater scheme of things. Oh, I’ve been incorrectly charged or double charged and I’ve had terrible experiences with the doctor’s office down the street…and prescriptions…but in general, nothing that took up as much time or money as the people in stories I’ve heard had to spend.

However, I would love to know HOW I ended up automatically enrolled in Medicaid.

I got a notification from the NY Health Exchange in November: “Congratulations! You qualify for Medicaid. You have been automatically enrolled and do not need to take any action.” Okay…I haven’t been on the exchange since I chose a health insurance plan last year, at which time I input my tax return, which shows that I definitely don’t qualify for Medicaid.

So I call the exchange and tell them about the issue, to which they say, well, it looks like you’re still enrolled in a qualified plan, so just ignore the Medicaid notice and reenroll in your insurance plan for 2019. I don’t love where this is going. Can I register somehow that I’m not TRYING to use Medicaid? No, I’m told. It will straighten itself out once I get a new plan, maybe.

I think that because of this glitch – which seems like it may not be super uncommon, though usually it’s a matter of someone almost-but-not-quite meeting the income requirements for Medicaid–which is much worse, because those are people who would qualify for a subsidy against a qualified plan, which they then can’t get because they supposedly have Medicaid (whereas it’s no problem for me to buy a plan at full price) – because of this glitch, I had to act as if I was purchasing my health insurance plan for the first time – ie as if I were choosing a new plan – rather than just being automatically reenrolled, but okay. It seems to work.

Then I got a Medicaid card in the mail last week. I don’t know why I find this so viscerally upsetting, but I think it’s a combination of 1) can I please document somehow that I’m not trying to scam the health insurance system, and 2) I’m sure this is happening to someone in the opposite direction (not, obviously, as a result of me mistakenly being enrolled, but the system doesn’t seem super…robust) and it’s a much more significant problem. 

Posted by Claire & filed under Blog. This post has 2 comments.