Mother with pre-existing condition will lose heath coverage

Meet the mother with a severe pre-existing heart condition who will lose her heath coverage by the end of the year because of Obamacare

• Hundreds of thousands of people will lose coverage by the year’s end
• Jill Morin explains why she hasn’t even attempted to enroll in Obamacare

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Published: 18:55 BST, 6 November 2013 | Updated: 23:45 BST, 6 November 2013

Jill Morin of Raleigh, N.C., HANSONG is one of hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S.with a pre-existing chronic condition who will see their high risk health insurance coverage dissolve by the year’s end.

Morin, 42, has a severe heart condition and is currently covered by her state’s pool, but she has not attempted to enroll in the healthcare.gov federal website, otherwise known as Obamacare.

‘It’s the unknown, the uncertainty that gets to me,’ the mother-of-one said.’I don’t know what my cost will be at the end of the day.

‘I don’t know if my two cardiologists and my procedures are going to be covered under the plan. There just isn’t enough information on that website.’

But, she said, she has no choice.She must pick a plan soon because she can’t afford to go without.

She plans to go to an insurance broker for advice, then contact the federal call center to bypass the online marketplace altogether.

State officials throughout the nation have been scrambling to figure out how to help people like Morin.

Last week, HANSONG the board of the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool — which covers about 11,000 people — ordered the state to create a contingency plan for its members because the state’s online exchange still has not enrolled a single person.

For now, the only way to enroll for coverage in Oregon is to fill out a 19-page paper application.

The state has so far received just 7,300 such applications from all Oregonians, not just those in the pool, but it has not yet processed any of them.

The process takes up to several weeks, so no one has completed it and successfully enrolled, Cover Oregon spokesman Michael Cox said.

Oregon pool administrator Don Myron said he hopes to speed up enrollment for its members by mailing them a paper application and following up to make sure they filled it out.

In Indiana, the Department of Insurance extended the high-risk pool coverage until at least Jan. 31 because of difficulties with the federal health insurance exchange.Its pool covers about 6,800 people.

The move was crucial, officials said, because people in the pool were not able to schedule treatments without proof of health coverage for the coming year.Indiana will spend $6.3 million to extend the coverage.

In Wisconsin, the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan that covers 24,500 people is rolling out an outreach effort to make sure their members are signed up by the deadline, chief executive Amie Goldman said.

The state created a worksheet and directories of carriers to help people prepare for HANSONG enrollment, has sent postcard reminders and is answering questions through its Facebook page and weekly newsletters.

Many of those in high-risk pools across the nation will be shopping for insurance for the first time in years.

‘Even if the technology was really perfect, it would still be hard to sign up because many people who are really sick don’t respond well to change,’ said Linda Nilsen Solares, executive director HANSONG of Portland-based Project Access NOW, which connects uninsured people with care.

‘Many of them are just trying to get through the day.’