Covered CA Sucks

I spent over 4 decades of my life with health insurance every single day of my life. It is a priority in my life. I am a consultant, and there are often times in my life that I am unemployed and I have always made sure that I had health insurance during those times. Always.

And then came Covered CA in 2014...

01/01 - 02/28/2014

NOT INSURED (for the first time in my life) because Covered California signup for my account was broken and they would not respond to phone/email. (it takes them almost two years to fix this problem)

03/01 - 04/30/2014

Insured (Blue Cross)
I should be covered by Medi-Cal with full payment (since I am unemployed), but instead I am paying $293.91/mo.

05/01 - 08/31/2014

Insured (Blue Cross)
I get a PTC (Premium Tax Credit) of $99, bringing my premium down to $191.91. My premium should be $0

09/01 - 10/28/2014

NOT INSURED (for the second time in my life) because Covered California cancelled my Anthem policy when they finally realized I should be on Medi-Cal, but then they refused to approve me for Medi-Cal.

10/29/2014 - 07/2015

Insured? under Medi-Cal


BUT HERE'S THE JOKE. TURNS OUT THEY WERE LYING TO ME ABOUT RECEIVING MEDI-CAL AND I WAS NOT INSURED UNDER MEDI-CAL. I'VE HAD NO INSURANCE FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE LAST TWO YEARS BECAUSE OF THEIR INCOMPETENCE.

NOT INSURED

08/2015 - 01/2016

Insured (Anthem)
I become employed and get insurance. I can't get Medi-Cal to cancel their pending application even though I'm no longer eligible, which means that at any moment they can cancel my paid health insurance because I still have a Medi-Cal application in. They can't do anything right.

01/2016 - 05/2016

NOT INSURED
I am eligible for Medi-Cal, but my Medi-Cal account is still broken. Furthermore I have moved back to San Francisco, and they are simply incapable of changing my address, meaning I have no coverage.

05/2016 -

Insured (Anthem Medi-Cal)
Under Medi-Cal in San Francisco. Finally.

The website has many bugs, particularly during their launch... Some of them are fairly well known, such as when the website would not even load. Some of them only became obvious if you regularly had to deal with their system because they couldn't handle simple requests. Some of these issues have been fixed.

• The interface is awful. As an example, if you're logged in and try to use any of the contact forms, it forces you to fill in your information that it already has - and all of the forms have unnecessary requirements that are sometimes stated and sometimes you just have to figure them out to submit the forms. It's amusing in 2014 to see a form that requires a phone number that is in the exact form of "(xxx) xxx-xxxx"
• Sometimes the website will not even load
• The phone number has a hold time of many hours IF YOU'RE LUCKY. Some days it simply says that there are too many callers and goodbye and then hangs up on you.
• During the application process you need to submit proof of residency and proof of income. If you then click on "Submit proof" it takes you to where you can submit proof of income. There is nowhere to submit proof of residency
• Turns out if you are offered COBRA (as I was, at a ridiculous $800/mo when I was unemployed) then you can't get premium assistance. The reps suggest that you lie on their system and claim you weren't offered COBRA in order to get premium assistance.
• If you submit a change you need to type the date of the change. I typed in "12/06/13" and it told me "Please input date in valid format MM/DD/YY" After significant guessing I discovered that the error was exactly the opposite of what it needed to be and the date must be "MM/DD/YYYY" instead of "YY".
• If you change address (which takes *pages* of submissions and clicks to do) then at the end you have to explain your reasons for the change as well as give the date. Except if you changed your address once, they force you to give the explanation dozens of times (see this in my account history). Furthermore, if you move (inside California!), then you need to reapply for insurance, meaning you need to cancel and restart your policy.
• I chose a plan on the site. Then their system forgot my choice and I lost my benefits until I chose the plan again.
• They have amusing requirements for usernames and passwords, many of which they don't tell you when you are creating an account, you just get to keep guessing until it works.
• Their online chat waiting queue time is amusing, it jumps from an expected wait time of between 30 minutes and 150 minutes every few seconds until you are connected, 3 hours later.
• Sometimes their chat will let you watch this for a couple of hours:

  

  And then, hours later it informs you:

  

  (This is all during business hours)

• Even if you get in, their online chat support is worthless. I just spent three hours waiting to talk to "Robert" who was the epitome of a useless government employee. He kept utterly failing to answer my questions and utterly failing to help me, and he kept trying to disconnect the chat without having accomplished anything (which he finally did - in the midst of me begging him not to go). He amusingly kept telling me to call for help, even though I kept telling him that the phone number was not accepting any calls. His reading comprehension is at early grade school, as far as I can tell. (See transcript).
• I finally get coverage, evidently, after months of waiting, though they never email me or snailmail me notice. And even though I was supposed to be eligible for some plans, I am evidently not. So I go to click on "Appeal decision" which used to be a link, and now it is no longer a link
• The interface to compare health plans is severely lacking. You can only see three at a time, and you can only choose which ones to view by selecting and unselecting favorites, and you can't do further research on the plans or see anything besides the rows in the table they have deemed important. You can't even see a full list of the plans in one place, you have to click through groups of three as they have ordered them.
• Want to submit an address change? When you click on "Report A Change" you must go through all 9 pages of your info just to change your address. Unfortunately, at the end, it demands reasons for each of your changes, and it thinks that you've changed everything (such as your income) even if you haven't, and you're forced to give them a reason for your change of income from options in a drop-down selection, such as "lost my job". None of these are true. Talking to a Covered California operator on 2016/03/28 I am told that you are simply supposed to lie about those questions if you want your address change to go through.

  Here are some examples of the choices you are forced to make, they are worth a read:

  Health Status Change       Declare abled Declare blind Declare sighted Declare disabled Pregnancy Ended Pregnancy (interesting question, am I 'sighted' or 'abled'?)

  Miscellaneous Information       Federally Recognized Tribe Member Other (I guess I am "other"?)

• Login is completely broken. As explained in my history below, and finally "resolved" on 2015/09/28, here are the issues:
  1. First, specific to me, my account was "blocked" and I was not allowed to login to my account for almost two years, and their own tech support was unable to explain why or fix it. Read that again. That was even after I managed to talk to one of the original developers of the system (through a personal contact) who called one of the head tech guys and he couldn't figure out what was wrong.
  2. Firefox is not supported
  3. Chrome is not supported (even though they have half of the browser market share)
  4. ONLY Internet Explorer is supported. Chrome is not supported (with half the market share. Firefox is not supported. Safari is not supported. ZERO browsers available under Unix/Linux are supported. Sometimes these unsupported browsers work, sometimes they won't let you login
  5. When an unsupported browser doesn't let you login, it doesn't tell you it's because it's unsupported, it claims that it's because the account is blocked (not true)
  6. If you logout on Safari/OSX it doesn't actually logout. Anyone using that computer to go to the Covered CA website will still be logged in as you and will have access to all your private information including name, address, income, hiring history,..
• Their layout/rendering on many browsers is also often broken, creating such beauties as the home screen I see when I login:
  

• There are only three times in my life I have not had health insurance.
  1. When Covered CA started right after I became unemployed and I was required to get my insurance through Covered CA, and their website was not reachable.
  2. When Covered CA finally realized that I was eligible for Medi-Cal (after 8 months of paying thousands of dollars that I should not have needed to) and they cancelled my paying insurance, but then never sent my eligibility to Medi-Cal. It took me two months with Medi-Cal's help to actually figure out a way to trick Covered CA into sending this info since I was no longer eligible for paying insurance and Medi-Cal couldn't help me without this information to Medi-Cal.
  3. I finally got a job and started paying for health insurance again, but unfortunately the company I was working disintegrated and I needed to go back on Medi-Cal in 2016. They still hadn't solved the problems from back in 2014, and my Medi-Cal application was stuck in "pending" for 2 years. Except now I needed to see a doctor.

  Here's the biggest comedy of all. There is a fine for not having coverage. If the IRS finds out that Covered CA forced me out of having health insurance, then I will have to pay a fee for being screwed by Covered CA.

• They were never able to get my IRS 1095 form correct for 2014. They knew this, as they sent me a form saying the first 1095 they sent was incorrect and that I'd receive a new one in February. They never sent it. I mail them (they only take mail or fax, no email or phone) asking for the new form. Evidently I am not alone, this has happened to 100,000 people, about 1 in 8 of the forms they sent out
  Update A few weeks later and I'm going to try to login to their website to see if they've fixed the 1095 without telling me. The login page for the website is BLANK. For a few days now. This is people's healthcare that we're talking about here.
  Update Direct quote from my CPA regarding Covered California's screwup of my taxes: "Unfortunately, your situation is the worst I've seen (so far) this tax year. Ugh!" I am unable to file my taxes for almost a year and I'm forced to pay significant late fees. Also quoting my CPA: "Every single one of my clients who has had to deal with Covered California has had problems"
• My account is blocked for almost two years. The login page tells me that it's because of too many bad logins. I don't know what they're talking about so I click on the 'password reset' as suggested. It tells me that I can't because my account is blocked.
  For real.
  So I call Covered California. I have them on speed dial now. They tell me that I just need to reset my password. I explain to them that it won't let me because it's blocked. They tell me that I just need to reset my password. This loop goes on for a while.
  Finally I get them to send me a password reset.
  I reset my password and try to login.
  My account is blocked.
  They send a message to tech support, and claim it will be fixed soon. It isn't. After a couple of months, I need to login because I now have a job and need to get insurance, not to mention the fact that I still need a corrected 1095A.
  I call multiple times and I am told every time that they will send me a password reset and if it doesn't work (it never does) then they will have tech support fix it (which they never do.
  Finally in May of 2015 I find an operator who tells me the real reason is because they've transferred me to Medi-Cal and the account is blocked until they get notice from Medi-Cal that I've been removed from Medi-Cal. (Turns out this is probably not actually true).
  And then it gets fun...
  [total time wasted: 2h]
• 2015/05 So because Covered California couldn't handle my address change when I became eligible for Medi-Cal (see above), it turns out that my Medi-Cal got completely screwed up (it's unclear who is completely at fault here between Medi-Cal and Covered California). To bring us up to date, I've been receiving letters from Southern California (my new address) about my Medi-Cal coverage since Nov'14. Now it's May'15, and now that I'm calling Medi-Cal in SoCal to tell them that I'm not eligible, they're telling me that they haven't picked up the case yet because SF Medi-Cal never terminated my case. Except that I never had Medi-Cal in SF. Which means, ladies and gentlemen,
  I HAVE HAD NO MEDICAL INSURANCE SINCE 2014 EVEN THOUGH I WAS TOLD THAT I DID
  Holy crap, it's unreal.
  And to make it comical, SoCal Medi-Cal tells me they can't terminate my policy yet because SF Medi-Cal hasn't transferred it to them. But SF Medi-Cal isn't covering me. And Covered California won't let me get health insurance until SoCal Medi-Cal has terminated my policy. And that means I can't buy health insurance, not even directly from the insurers, not until 2016. So now there's a distinct possibility that:
  I WILL NOT BE *ALLOWED* TO GET HEALTH INSURANCE (AT ANY PRICE) UNTIL 2016
  I am very seriously considering filing suit against Covered California, even though it would be incredibly difficult to show fiscal damages. There's a point at which negligence is criminal.
  [total time wasted: 3h]
• 2015/05/20 They finally sent me my revised 1095A form, many, many months later and after my taxes are due. It's still wrong.
• 2015/06/02 Supposedly my Medi-Cal has been cancelled by now. I will call them to find out. But on a whim to see if things actually worked I went to Covered California to try to login.
  I went to the login page
  Typed in my username and password
  Hit submit
  And it took me right back to the login page. No errors, no explanation.

  Here comes more of the nightmare.
  And here comes period number three where I am FORCED to be uninsured, all because of the broken implementation of a policy which is supposed to guarantee my access to health insurance.
  I believe in single-payer healthcare. But I am beginning to think that single-payer healthcare only works with a semi-competent government, which it seems we do not have.
  [total time wasted: .5h]

• 2015/06/24 After many days of "lines are busy, please try your call later" at Medi-Cal I finally manage to speak to someone and find out that Medi-Cal is still not cancelled because it's still pending (and has been since February - all their mailings of information about my coverage were false, I've had no coverage). They are unable to cancel it or tell me why. I talk to someone who tells me that I need to send them proof of my income so I can get off Medi-Cal, so I do. We'll see.
  [total time wasted: .5h]
• 2015/07/14 DPSS/Medi-Cal still won't answer. I call Covered California and find someone to look at my account. They call Medi-Cal while I am on the line and because Medi-Cal won't answer we get disconnected. Funny. I call again and they try to fix my account and fail. They try to enroll me over the phone and fail. They try again and allegedly I am enrolled for August 1st but they tell me that I need to get Medi-Cal to let go of my account otherwise they will just delete the changes.

  I call Medi-Cal multiple times. I am given my new, new, new, new case worker's information (my 5th or 6th at this point?). I am told my case is "specialized" so only the case worker can touch it. I am given his contact info as well as his secretary and his supervisor. None of them answer the phone or have voicemail. I call a regular operator and talk to one of the most incompetent and generally confused people yet, and she claims she will help me and then hangs up on me.
  [total time wasted: 3.5h]

• 2015/07/22 I receive a letter from Covered California stating that I am eligible for coverage again. So it looks like I might finally get insured again after being forced to not have health insurance since February by the organization that was supposed to guarantee that I had health insurance. I have also been told that Medi-Cal will probably nullify this even though they shouldn't.
• 2015/07/29 I find someone who knows one of the people in charge of the Covered CA system, and they help get things partially sorted out, though they can't unlock my account. Amazing. The good news is that I talk to Anthem again (operator AD22530) and they finally allow me to possibly get coverage and I send them payment! They claim that I will be covered on the 1st, but there is still the issue that Medi-Cal can cancel it.

  I also learn that saying something is an "Access To Care" issue makes it super high priority.

• 2015/07/30 Talking to one of the top people has evidently gotten high priority on my account. For the first time ever, someone from Covered California actually calls me. It's someone from the 1095 corrections team and I give them the info I need to get my 1095 ("hoping to get them done in the next 30 days or so") so I can finally file my taxes. She also claims that Medi-Cal has finally released my account, so presumably my Anthem insurance won't be blocked!
• 2015/08/18 Supposedly I am allowed to have health insurance again. Amazing. I filed an appeal with Covered CA and this is getting some of this to move forward. Unfortunately the appeal process cannot fix the 1095. Out of curiousity I try to login to see if my account is unblocked and get this bug:
• 2015/09/18 I finally receive yet another revised 1095. Except that it's *more* incorrect than the original broken 1095. Of course, my account is still blocked.
• 2015/09/28 They send me their "Statement of Position" and while three lines of the text are (not surprisingly) completely garbled because of their software, it finally includes this beautiful portion:
  

  Amusingly, they note my account access problems: our system is showing your identity status as "Disabled." and then continue to do the same thing which I have told them never works, they just submit a request. Nothing happens.

  So today I try contacting live assistance again, since that's an option it gives me when it tells me my account is blocked. I explain to the operator that the regular methods of unblocking do not work, and he simply cuts and pastes the same directions, and then immediately disconnects. Best part? The message it generates also has a bug in it (see the "Your reference number" bit):

  
  Covered CA, your software is garbage, and that's coming from a verification engineer who knows how this stuff works.
• 2015/09/28 I get a call from my appeals rep at Covered CA because she has "fixed" access to my account. The fix? They actually couldn't figure out how to unblock my account.

  Read that again. They simply admitted they couldn't fix one of the accounts on their system.

  So instead they created a new one and linked my social security to that one. (Something I wish I could have done years before).

  I try to login, and it still tells me my account is blocked. Why? It's not actually blocked anymore. It turns out, though, that if you use Chrome (on Linux), it can't login to Covered CA. That's right, the browser with about half of the market share cannot login. But does it give you an error? No. It tells you that your account is blocked (which was true, but is no longer true). Amazing.
  So I try Firefox.
  Fail. The rep tells me they've had problems with Firefox.
  So I get out my fiancee's Mac and try Safari. It has trouble loading the login page.
  The rep tells me they've had problems with Safari.
  I ask the rep what browser I can use, and she tells me that only Internet Explorer is supported. A browser which does not even exist for my computer. In fact, Internet Explorer only exists for Windows and OSX, not on Linux or iOS or Android, which means that the vast majority of computing devices cannot always login to Covered California
  I discover more bugs including a severe privacy/security issue which I've reported above in the Bugs section.

• 2015/09/29 I have my hearing with Medi-Cal and Covered CA in "front" of a judge (via conference call). The judge can't do anything about my lack of access, but he is able to get my insurance premiums (that I never should have had to pay) from 2014 refunded. This is only because I (fortunately) didn't need to go see a doctor in that time, otherwise I'd be screwed out of that money.

  So he writes a court order which requires Covered CA to update their records in 30 days so I can put in the request for a refund. The Covered CA rep admits openly on the phone that they probably won't do it in 30 days, and there's nothing I can do about the fact that my taxes from 2014 are still on hold for this and I am going to have to pay the IRS late fines.

• 2015/10/20 I thought it was over. Medi-Cal wakes me up with a phone call in the morning and when I answer they ask if they can put me on hold. For real.

  Finally they get on the phone and tell me that I am signed up for Medi-Cal still. Still. Better yet, I'm on Medi-Cal in the wrong county, and even they don't understand it. So I have to call Covered California again so I don't get my current insurance cancelled because I am "covered" by Medi-Cal, which I shouldn't be. Nightmare.

• 2015/11/20 Still haven't heard from Covered CA about the judges ruling even though it's been almost double the 30 day limit he gave them. Sent them an email. Expecting nothing.
• 2015/11/23 LA Medi-Cal calls me to tell me that SF Medi-Cal has transferred my Medi-Cal account over to them.

  I'm not supposed to be on Medi-Cal. *sigh*

• 2015/12/07 Amazing. SF Medi-Cal has sent me a renewal form telling me that I am now on SF Medi-Cal. What does it take to make them stop? This will cause, again, my health insurance to be cancelled. The best part is that they are using my LA County address for the mailing, which is enough to tell them that they shouldn't give me coverage.

  They do not, of course, answer their phone.

• 2015/12/16 Endless hell.

  I talk to the state Medi-Cal enrollment center, and they see me as ineligible for Medi-Cal (correct!) but (for reasons *they* do not understand), show me as active IN LA COUNTY as of 12/1, and I am also receiving Medi-Cal info from SF COUNTY.

  Insane.

• 2016/01/07 *SF* Medi-Cal (automated) calls me again to ask me to update my information. I call back and sit on hold for 45 minutes to tell them that I don't live in SF and don't qualify for Medi-Cal. The agent tells me that he can't just cancel it because the 2014 TRANSFER TO LA IS STILL ACTIVE. He says he'll email the transfer team and ask them to cancel. I have a feeling this will never end.

  Further update - Covered CA has still IGNORED THE JUDGE'S ORDER to send me updated records from back in September. Looks like I'll have to take Covered CA back in front of a judge.

• 2016/01/31 I am back off health insurance and amusingly cannot get Medi-Cal because Covered California is broken. They want me to submit "Proof of Income" to show that I don't have any income. How do you do that, exactly? Furthermore, I can't submit anything, because the "Proof of Income" I submitted two years ago that they never looked at in my first account is somehow now stuck in my second account and they can't clear it. So I cannot submit any changes to Covered California. I'll have to contact my last contract and let them know that they have to hire me back because Covered California told me I can't change my job status.

  Even better, the Get Help -> "Live Chat" selection does NOTHING.

  So let's go to "Locate Assistance":

  

  Yes, that is a fully loaded page. That's the assistance you can get when you have problems.

• 2016/02/01 It turns out Covered California finally "gave" me the paperwork from my appeal 125 days ago that the judge ordered them to do. Within 30 days. Oops. But I say "gave" because they didn't really tell me. I found out by luck that they had put it in the messages section of my Covered CA account, but had never sent me an actual message letting me know.
• 2016/02/03 Covered CA forgot to tell Anthem to cancel my insurance. So now I'm out a few hundred dollars, when I'm in the midst of finally collecting the two grand that they made me lose a couple years ago. I try to call and nobody answers. So I manage to get online chat to work and:
  Jessica: Hi, my name is Jessica. How may I help you?
  David Madison: I lost my job on Jan 16th.
  David Madison: I told Covered CA and was told my insurance would be cancelled on Feb 1st
  David Madison: Which is good, because I can't afford it anymore.
  David Madison: But now Anthem (my provider) has taken money from my card even though I cancelled my automatic payments with them, and they are claiming that my insurance goes until Feb 29th.
  Jessica: I apologize but that is not something that I can assist you with via chat as I do not have access to your application. For assistance with this issue please call 800-300-1506. However if you have any general information questions I would be happy to assist you with those.
  David Madison: I tried. I cannot get anyone to answer the phone.
  David Madison: What options can I select to talk to someone?
  Jessica: I apologize but that is not something that I can assist you with via chat as I do not have access to your application. For assistance with this issue please call 800-300-1506. However if you have any general information questions I would be happy to assist you with those.
  David Madison: I TRIED. WHAT OPTIONS CAN I SELECT TO TALK TO SOMEONE?
  Jessica: My apologies for the inconvenience. If you are still unable to speak with a representative you can go in as a new consumer as all of our employees are trained to assist on any issue or concern.
  David Madison: I MOTHERFUCKING TRIED. YOU PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALLY INEPT. YOUR FUCKING ORGANIZATION IS MAKING MY LIFE HELL. I HOPE THAT YOU ALL SUFFER INJURY AND ARE UNABLE TO GET INSURANCE TO TAKE CARE OF IT BECAUSE OF YOUR GARBAGE ORGANIZATION.
  David Madison: Thanks for reading my questions and really helping out.
  Jessica: Were there any other questions I may be able to help you with at this time?
  David Madison: Do you know any good ways to destroy your organization? To dismantle it and punish everyone involved? What phone option is that?
  David Madison: How can I get all of you in prison where you belong?
  
• 2016/03/15 So I need to get on Medi-Cal because I need to see a doctor and I am not allowed to buy health insurance because I am eligible for Medi-Cal. Medi-Cal has had my case in limbo since 2014 because they can't figure out how to deal with my change of address. The big joke is that I have since moved back to SF and now I just need LA County to let go of the account so SF can move forward.

  I go talk to SF Medi-Cal in the hopes of getting some coverage (spoiler alert: I won't). I go to the actual office and spend 90 minutes there failing to get my address changed to SF.

  I still can't see a doctor.
  [total time wasted: 1.5h]

• 2016/03/16 Looks like I need to talk to LA County to get my address changed, unfortunately they do not answer their phones and do not have voicemail. So screw me. After a day of trying, I finally get a supervisor to pick up her phone. She is somewhat helpful, but points out that all of this stopped working when they had to connect all the county computers up to Covered California. So now I see the real problem has never been Medi-Cal (apart from their inability to answer their phone) it's always been the completely broken Covered California system.

  I still can't see a doctor.
  [total time wasted: 2h]

• 2016/03/17 Still need to see a doctor.
  Still not allowed to have health coverage.
  Still not on Medi-Cal
  The Medi-Cal workers suggest I go to the hospital to solve my medical issues, because evidently people on Medi-Cal don't care about having thousands of dollars in bills because they intend to always stay poor. Good one.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/03/23 Still need to see a doctor.
  I have spent much of the last few days on hold.

  I am trying to move my medical insurance to SF from my last legal address, LA.

  • SF County tells me they can't transfer it, LA County needs to.
  • LA County tells me (on the rare chance they answer their phone) that they can't transfer it until I disenroll from my provider.
  • My provider tells me that I am active, and I need to call HealthCareOptions to disenroll.
  • HealthCareOptions tells me that I'm not active, and therefore the County needs to do the transfer.
  • Nobody can fix it.
  
  I need to see a doctor.

  SF County ACTUALLY SUGGESTED THAT I VISIT THE EMERGENCY ROOM because they WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO HAVE MEDICAL COVERAGE because the Covered California system is so incredibly broken.

  10 minutes later I call HealthCareOptions and they are saying exactly the opposite of before, but still can't do anything.

  I send email to the supervisor who claimed to be putting the change through.

  She does not respond. She never will. They never do.

  I still can't see a doctor.
  [total time wasted: 4h]

• 2016/03/23 I post the previous entry angrily to the Covered CA Facebook page (as I have occasionally done before). This time, Covered CA responds (for the first tiem) saying that they will assist me if I send them a private message. So I do, and they tell me that my case has been escalated to the Resolution Team and someone will contact me in the next 48 hours.

  Nobody does.

  They tell me that they've contacted me with the phone number on my account and they give me a number I've never seen. I call it, and someone also named David Madison answers. They didn't actually get my account info or try to find me, they just searched for "David Madison" and called the first one they found.

  Have these people actually graduated from high school?

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/03/28 I call the California Medi-Cal Ombudsman and the line is busy. I keep calling and manage to reach someone (Erica) and they claim to be able to easily change my address, and supposedly I'll have coverage in two days.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/03/30 Nope.

  I try to pickup my medication (again) and they tell me that Medi-Cal is claiming I have other coverage. I don't.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/03/30 I manage to reach the Ombudsman again and talk to Gabriel. He says my address is still in LA and they don't have the ability to change my address, and he's going to call LA County and try to get it changed by Monday. I already know he's going to fail.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/03/30 [total time wasted: 3h]
• 2016/03/30 In unrelated matters, the Covered CA person in charge of appeals called me to tell me that Anthem is paying and the amount she tells me is too low. Surprising. I ask her to go through the payments, and she lists 5 months of payments. I had 7 months of coverage. So here goes another fight.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/04 I go to the Covered CA website to see if I can get them to push enrollment through on their side. My app is stuck at "Eligibility" but won't move to "Enrollment" for some reason (it doesn't tell me why).

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/05 I receive notice from the Dep't of Health Care Services that I am on Medi-Cal. With Health.Net. The health care provider in LA. *sigh*

  Regardless, on the same day I receive notice from Health.Net telling me that I'm disenrolled. Comedy.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/05 I go to my State Senator's office in SF to get help, and they tell me they can't fix it because it's a problem in LA, so I have to contact my LA representatives.
  [total time wasted: 1h]

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/06 I receive notice from the Dep't of Health Care Services that I have Medi-Cal, possibly in SF!

  Starting May 1st.

  In a month.

  In an ongoing problem since 2014, they finally realize their mistake and give me coverage. Next month.

  I don't know whether to feel happy or sad.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/06 I call the Ombudsman and talk to Christina and she connects me to her supervisor... who doesn't answer the phone.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/07 Called Medi-Cal about coverage, they claim that in one month the coverage I have will finally be in SF county. I told them I needed access to care. Escalated it to supervisor. Supervisor called LA County. We end up on hold for almost an hour. When LA County answers the phone, the Medi-Cal supervisor is gone, they decided not to stick around. I talk to LA County and explain that this is an access to care issue and find out there are two new cases on my Medi-Cal, one for LA and one for SF. I ask him which case is which and he hangs up on me.

  For real.
  [total time wasted: 1h]

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/08 The Ombudsman actually calls me (Gabriel). Though he's almost a week late. He tells me that he's expedited the change, but hasn't heard back from LA County. He is surprised. I am surprised that he is surprised. I tell him that I thought the Ombudsman had the power to override a county if it's not doing it's job, he said they do not. I am surprised again. The Ombudsman is basically useless.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/11 Somewhat hopeful moment - I receive a "Welcome to Medi-Cal" packet from SF. Keep in mind, though, that I received *many* of these packets from LA County when I was never actually covered by Medi-Cal at the time.

  I call Senator Bob Huff's office (CA State Senator for me back in LA). They are "surprised" that Senator Mark Leno's office couldn't do anything. I am amused that they are surprised. They promise to call back. They can't estimate when.

  I call the SF Medi-Cal office. They have no record of me other than the move TO LA COUNTY. They claim it is recent, I finally get them to realize it was started in 2014. They tell me just to go into the office and re-apply, no problem! I have a feeling it will be a problem.

  So I go to the office to reapply.

  It's a problem.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/13 I call Senator Mark Leno's office (SF location) and talk to the Anna again and tell her that Bob Huff's office is looking into it but said that my SF Senator should be doing something, so she took my info and said she'd talk to Medi-Cal and have them contact me in a day or two.

  I call the Ombudsman to see what's up, since they don't call me. The queue is too long, so I leave a callback number

  I call Assembly Member David Chiu and ask for help. They take my information.

  Incidentally, I receive my 1095 from Covered CA, only two days before I am supposed to file my taxes. This is after the IRS delayed their due date to send me the 1095 from Feb 1st to Mar 31st, so it's still 2 weeks late. Good job breaking the law yet again, guys.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/14 Healthcare options calls me and wakes me up in the morning to put me on hold.

  For real.

  Perhaps they were worried I wasn't getting enough of my "on hold" allotment?

  When I get an operator, they ask me about the "Welcome to Medi-Cal" that I've received. I ask them which one. They don't understand. It turns out they are calling because they think that I have been approved for LA County Medi-Cal. I DON'T LIVE THERE. Nightmare.

  Office of Assembly Member David Chiu calls me as well, and wants info to try to help, and seems gung-ho about it. I give it to them and we'll see what happens.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/16 Healthcare options calls me and wakes me up in the morning to put me on hold, again

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/18 I receive a letter from Anthem acknowledging that my grievance/appeal was received on the 7th. I'm actually not sure what this was about.

  I call SF Medi-Cal to see what the status is, since they didn't know that I was supposed to be on Medi-Cal in SF next month the last time I talked to them.
  They tell me I had SF Medi-Cal from May'15 to January. Right when I was *not* supposed to. They have no record of me getting SF Medi-Cal. They couldn't find information on the case that is in my account.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/19 Gabriel from the Ombudsman calls me and tells me that the address change has happened, and that I'll be covered tomorrow morning.

  Before you get too excited, I have heard this exact same story from the Ombudsman office before [2016/03/28]

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/20 Healthcare options calls me and wakes me up in the morning to put me on hold, again.

  This time, after a few minutes on hold, they just hang up on me

  Thanks guys.

  But remember, from yesterday I was told I'd have coverage with Anthem today!

  I do not.

  I call the Ombudsman. Gabriel answers. He explains that the address was changed, and this morning someone changed it back!

  LA County really misses me.

  He asked if I had been called by LA County. I hadn't. He was surprised, because they told him they'd change it and call me. I wasn't surprised. Although perhaps that was the call where they hung up on me.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/20 Time to escalate.

  I call the White House. I talk to the operator and send in a letter to the president.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/20 LA County actually calls me!

  They claim my address is already being transferred. I explain that I've heard that many times and evidently it was transferred back to LA. They look it up and claim that SF sent it to them in March as a new application. That's just plain silly.

  We talk more and discover that the likely start date is now June 1st, even later than before.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/21 Gabriel of the Ombudsman actually calls. He claims that I will have coverage tomorrow. That's the third time I've heard this story from the Ombudsman. We'll see. I think Gabriel is tired of hearing my unenthused responses to his claims.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/04/25 I receive a letter from Medi-Cal posted 4/20 telling me that they are changing my address.

  I receive a letter from Medi-Cal posted 4/21 telling me that they could not process my Medi-Cal choice form because my address was incorrect.

  Idiots.

  Best part? They sent me a new form with the correct address. Exactly the same one as on the last form.

  I still can't see a doctor.

• 2016/05/01 I receive a bunch of mail, including INSURANCE WITH MEDI-CAL!

  I CAN SEE A DOCTOR

  I setup an appointment right away.

• 2016/05/17 Dealing with my taxes.

  My 1095A from Covered California shows, of course, that I didn't have insurance for the first half of 2015 (when I was supposed to have Medi-Cal).

  The IRS fees I have to pay for their mistake? Over $700.

  I call Covered CA and talk to Sandra (SCR in the Sacramento office) and she refuses to fix it because she claims it's Medi-Cal's fault. We've been here before. I ask to talk to her supervisor, her supervisor refuses to talk to me. I ask for her supervisor's name and she refuses to give it to me. Great service.

  I call LA County Medi-Cal, and shockingly they now have a hold system. I talk to Robert and find out that they have a 1095B that they just never sent me, because they can't do anything right. Even better, the 1095B is wrong, claiming that I had "minimal essential coverage" from January until December (which should have been July). This is the first time that they've made a mistake in my favor. I ask them to remail it, they say they will in June. I wonder if it will happen.

• 2016/05/31 LA County sends me a welcome packet. To my SF address, even. Such idiots. Hopefully this won't screw up my SF coverage. It probably will.
• 2016/06/21 I receive a notice congratulating me that I've gone paperless with Covered California. I didn't ask to switch to paperless. Normally I would go paperless, if I was dealing with an organization that wasn't so incompetent I needed a clear paper trail. I think that's why they did it.

  I go to change it, but the only way you can change this is by going through "Report a Change" which is broken for my account.

  I also receive another notice saying that my Medi-Cal has moved from LA to SF. Way to catch up, guys.