'They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!': Obamacare confusion reigns as frustrated patients walk out of hospitals without treatment

  • MailOnline spoke with patients who were told they would have to pay their bills in full if they couldn't prove they had insurance
  • One was faced with a $3,000 hospital room charge and opted to leave the hospital after experiencing chest pains
  • 'Should I be in the hospital? Probably,' she said
  • Another, coughing in the cold, walked out without receiving a needed chest x-ray
  • Consumers face sticker-shock from medical costs under the new Obamacare system, made worse if they can't prove they're insured
  • As many as one-third of new enrollees' applications have seen problems when the government transmits them to insurance companies

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 15:57 EST, 2 January 2014 | UPDATED: 15:24 EST, 3 January 2014

Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can't determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.

Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they've signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren't taking their word for it.

In place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can't afford.

'They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!' a coughing Maria Galvez told MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of Springfield.

She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray.

'The people in there told me that since I didn't have an insurance card, I would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray,' Galvez said, her young daughter in tow. 'It's not fair – you know, I signed up last week like I was supposed to.'

The x-ray's cost, she was told, would likely be more than $500.

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Going home: One patient left the hospital without being admitted for chest pains after she was warned she might have to pay full-price. She asked MailOnline not to publish a photograph of her face

Going home: One patient left the hospital without being admitted for chest pains after she was warned she might have to pay full-price. She asked MailOnline not to publish a photograph of her face

MailOnline spoke to patients outside hospitals in Virginia's Washington, D.C. suburbs, many of them confused about the state of their insurance coverage

MailOnline spoke to patients outside hospitals in Virginia's Washington, D.C. suburbs, many of them confused about the state of their insurance coverage

Galvez said she enrolled in a Carefirst Blue Cross bronze plan at a cost of about $450 per month through healthcare.gov, three days before Christmas.

'No one has sent me a bill,' she said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified in a December 11 congressional hearing that the federal government can't say how many new enrollees have written checks for their first month's premiums.

 

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'Some may have paid, some may have not,' she conceded.

It's unlikely that a valid insurance card would have changed Galvez' fortunes, however.

GALLUP: MOST AMERICANS HAVE OBAMACARE HORROR STORIES

Fifty-nine percent of Americans told Gallup pollsters that they have had negative experiences with the Affordable Care Act, according to the public opinion giant's latest survey.

Just 39 per cent said their experiences were positive.

Only 7 per cent called their Obamacare journeys 'very positive,' but 29 per cent said their interaction with the new system has been 'very negative.'

Gallup interviewed 1,500 uninsured Americans in December, 450 of whom said they had visited health insurance exchange websites.

As dismal as those numbers are, they represent a slight improvement: In November, Gallup found that 63 per cent of uninsured Americans had negative experiences with the president's new health care overhaul.

Her Carefirst plan, identified on the Obamacare website as BlueChoice Plus Bronze, carries a $5,500 per-person deductible for 2014 – an amount she would have to pay out-of-pocket before her coverage would apply to medical expenses.

The Inova radiology department wouldn't speak with MailOnline, and Carefirst did not respond to a request for comment.

A similar situation frustrated Mary, an African-American small businesswoman who asked MailOnline not to publish her last name. She was leaving the Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia with two family members.

'I had chest pains last night, and they took me in the emergency room,' Mary said. 'They told me they were going to admit me, but when I told them I hadn't heard from my insurance company since I signed up, they changed their tune.'

She told MailOnline that a nurse advised her that her bill would go up by at least $3,000 if she were admitted for a day, and her doctor told her the decision was up to her.

 
No x-ray for you: This patient left a Virginia medical facility without receiving a test her doctor recommended

No x-ray for you: This patient left a Virginia medical facility without receiving a test her doctor recommended

'Should I be in the hospital? Probably,' she said. 'Maybe it's one of those borderline cases. I have to think that if I were really in danger, they wouldn't give me the choice. But what if I think I'm covered and I'm really not?'

'The emergency room bill is going to be bad enough.'

No card, no service: Hundreds of thousands of Americans are likely in health-insurance limbo with no proof of insurance as the new year begins

No card, no service: Hundreds of thousands of Americans are likely in health-insurance limbo with no proof of insurance as the new year begins

The Obamacare system has suffered from a long list of setbacks since its October 1 rollout, starting with an inoperable website and ending with rampant uncertainty about whether Americans who enrolled are actually covered.

'We're telling consumers if they're not sure if they're enrolled they should call the insurer directly,' White House Press Secretary Jay Carney old reporters on December 2.

The Washington Post reported that day that because of computer glitches in the 'back end' of healthcare.gov, enrollment records for as many as one-third of new insurance customers were corrupted or otherwise contain errors.

Given the Obama administration's latest claim that 2.1 million have signed up nationwide, that means as many as 700,000 Americans might falsely believe they have a current health insurance policy.

Mary and others like her, who took the time to enroll but may not follow the daily flood of news about Obamacare, likely don't know one way or the other.

'Why is this so complicated?' she asked. 'I had my own private insurance last year, but they cancelled me in November. I'm not sure which end is up.'

Private industry estimates put the number of policy cancellations as high as 4.7 million in the last quarter of 2013, mostly involving health care plans that didn't meet the Affordable Care Act's strict minimum standards.

Democrats serving on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce dispute that number, saying in a new report that no more than 10,000 will wind up without affordable insurance options after losing their old policies. 

The Inova Healthplex in Springfield, Virginia offers free valet parking, but if you want to see a doctor you'll need proof that you've paid your Obamacare premium

The Inova Healthplex in Springfield, Virginia offers free valet parking, but if you want to see a doctor you'll need proof that you've paid your Obamacare premium

Still working: Emergency services are still being provided at Northern Virginia hospitals, whether or not patients can prove they're covered -- but getting a bed in a hospital ward could come with a tremendous sticker-shock

Still working: Emergency services are still being provided at Northern Virginia hospitals, whether or not patients can prove they're covered -- but getting a bed in a hospital ward could come with a tremendous sticker-shock

President Obama has attracted widespread criticism, and a 'lie of the year' award from one newspaper's fact-checker, for promising that Americans who liked their health plans would be allowed to keep them.

Dr. John Venetos, a Chicago gastroenterologist, told the Associated Press on Thursday that he is seeing 'tremendous uncertainty and anxiety' among his patients who signed up for Obamacare plans but don't have insurance cards.

'They’re not sure if they have coverage,' Venetos said. 'It puts the heavy work on the physician.'

'At some point, every practice is going to make a decision about how long can they continue to see these patients for free if they are not getting paid.'

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Why is this some huge surprise? The right has been warning people for years and the left has made it obvious that they will lie to you just to save Obama's reputation. Obama needs to be impeached.

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And this is supposed to be some huge surprise. The republicans have been warning people for years and people would rather listen to the democrats that lied throughout this entire situation to save Obama's credibility. Now who is paying the price? The very people it was supposed to help. When is this country going to realize that Obama has no clue as to what he is doing.

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You wanted it. Now you have it. Keep voting for Socialists, you idiots.

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You want this. Now you've got it. Keep voting for Socialists, you idiots.

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Question for the "Nancy Pelosi" constituents and supporters -- Aren't you glad your representative ** PASSED THE BILL SO SHE (AND ALL OF AMERICA) COULD FIND OUT WHAT'S IN IT? We have to have a license to own a dog, but any "tool" can vote!!

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Let's see.... The number of doctors who will not accept Medicaid is increasing, so good luck finding health care with that option. Secondly ,those who bought policies thinking they would get care, now learn the concept of out-of-control deductibles, requiring the same if not more out-of-pocket expenses as they had without health insurance. Hmm. probably not going to get healthcare there either. Just what about this trainwreck makes sense to anyone?

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Right, Gia, because PPO insurance with high deductibles weren't around before Jan 1st, 2014... When you have a $800,000 dollar hospital bill and you only have to pay $6,000 of that, what math are you using that shows $6,000 is more than the $800,000 someone who is uninsured would have to pay?

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@WillHelm the time for offering up straw man arguments and attempting to deny the truth is over, we are dealing with reality now, this is a disaster.

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Please wake up and realize that the Democrats and the Republicans are 2 sides of the same coin. It does not matter which one is in govt, if you vote any of them in you are guaranteed to get shafted. Have you not learned this by now?.Remember Mr Bush and how he helped destroy your country. Wake up and smell the coffee, you need to start doing things differently to get different results.

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If they actually have insurance, there's no reason they should be walking out without treatment. There's nothing the hospital can do to you except give you a bill and if you have insurance, you send that bill off to them. Not that hard of a concept.

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It would be cheaper to pay the non-insured penalty, and then pay out of pocket, since with a $6000 deductible, you are paying out of pocket anyway. Why pay the premium? If you get into an accident, the ER has to take you regardless. I see no benefit here for "insurance" for anything but major diseases.

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Your comment doesn't really make sense. Sure, it'd be cheaper to not buy insurance and pay the non-insured penalty if nothing happens to you in that calendar year, but explain how that's going to be cheaper if you say get into a bad car accident and have to spend weeks in an ICU... You'll be wishing you only had to pay $6,000 when your medical bills are $20,000+

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This is what you get when you vote for someone with no experience, who hides his college records, voted "present" 129 times in the Illinois senate, then accepted a Nobel prize for nothing instead of turning it down. What did you expect?

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