Thousands of Illinoisans have to reapply for ObamaCare

If navigating the ObamaCare website or filling out the applications weren’t challenging enough, some in Illinois and around the country are facing yet another challenge. USA Today reports that some people are being mistakenly enrolled into Medicaid. Not only are individuals improperly enrolled in Medicaid faced with the problem of canceling that enrollment, but they...

If navigating the ObamaCare website or filling out the applications weren’t challenging enough, some in Illinois and around the country are facing yet another challenge. USA Today reports that some people are being mistakenly enrolled into Medicaid.

Not only are individuals improperly enrolled in Medicaid faced with the problem of canceling that enrollment, but they are also prevented from receiving subsidies in private coverage until the matter is resolved. Since we are talking about the federal government here, calling the 800 number is of little to no use. These people are simply being told that they are qualified for Medicaid if the website has already confirmed that.

Clearing up the matter involves filing an appeal with the federal marketplace. In other words, canceling an incorrect enrollment may involve yet another long engagement with the federal website and its accompanying bureaucracy. Since Dec. 23 is the deadline for obtaining coverage by Jan. 1, it is likely that these individuals will not be able to enroll in private coverage by the looming ObamaCare deadline.

According to USA Today’s story, this is a problem facing some in Illinois:

Illinois expects about 19,000 files shortly from HHS. Illinois state spokesman Mike Claffey says he doesn’t know how many may have problems, but Chicago broker Jordan Wishner says seven of them will be from his office and definitely will be wrong.

He has three clients of his own and an agent in his office has another four who are clearly above 138% of the federal poverty limit ($32,499 for a family of four), yet are being told they are eligible for Medicaid, which blocks their efforts to buy subsidized insurance.

’What am I supposed to do with the clients that are being told they qualify for Medicaid when they actually do not?’ asks Wishner, who owns The Health Insurance Shoppe, a retail insurance store. ‘Send in an appeal with 16 days left? Seriously?’

Illinois is already facing enormous challenges verifying its current Medicaid enrollees’ eligibility. The state of Illinois has been using a private contractor to scrub its Medicaid eligible rolls, but the private firm that was tackling this challenge has now been blocked by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. So far, the firm found that 40 percent of the state’s Medicaid enrollees were ineligible for the program.

The reason the private firm was sought in the first place was that the state was failing to verify Medicaid eligibility, confirmed by the state’s own Auditor General. In response to years of waste, fraud and abuse, state lawmakers hired a private firm to the job.

Now, at a time when competent and efficient Medicaid eligibility verification is needed more than ever, the state will be receiving tens of thousands Medicaid enrollee files containing known ineligibles. One has to wonder how long these Illinoisans will be forced to wait for these errors to be sorted out – and trapped in ObamaCare limbo.