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Applying for Health Insurance: Then and Now

2013-10-08 · John · watch on YouTube · US politics & society · news analysis

John applies for health insurance twice, through the glitchy new Affordable Care Act exchange and through a pre-ACA private application; he concludes the exchange was more than twice as fast and far less intrusive, so buying insurance has gotten dramatically better.

What is said

00:00:00 — Plan: apply for health insurance twice, via the ACA exchanges and via pre-ACA private insurance

  • ★★★ John says he will apply for health insurance twice: through the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act and through the pre-ACA private insurance options, which still exist. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In the description John says it is too soon to tell which option will be cheaper or offer the best coverage; he wanted to compare the still very glitchy exchanges with the pre-ACA experience. — 00:00:00

00:00:26 — ACA exchange: repeated sign-up failures, room-service gag, account created, family details, submit

  • ★★ Starting at 1:11 p.m. via Google, John's exchange sign-up repeatedly fails ('please wait', 'sign up unsuccessful', 'system is unavailable'); five minutes in he calls it a little underwhelming. — 00:00:26 · Google
  • ★★ Once he has an account, John enters himself, his wife, his son a child of the brothers and his new baby, and finds the questions easy to answer. — 00:01:35 · Sarah Urist Green

00:02:04 — 49 minutes in: identity verified by driver-licence photo; switch to the private application

  • ★★ At 2 p.m., 49 minutes into the ACA application, John has uploaded a photo of his driver's license to verify his identity before choosing a plan. — 00:02:04

00:02:34 — Pre-ACA private application: voidance warning, driving, pregnancy, diagnoses, drinking, hospital stays, ten years of medical history

  • ★★ The pre-ACA private application warns that incorrect or incomplete information may void coverage or lead to claim denial, which John calls the really scary part. — 00:02:34
  • ★★ The private form asks about moving violations, pregnancy, diagnoses including mental or behavioral disorders, and drinking over 14 drinks a week; John answers with jokes. (playful) — 00:03:03
  • ★★ John says the private application is fully 25 pages, its language makes his head hurt, and he must look up different doctors' phone numbers. — 00:04:06
  • ★ Listing hospital stays and surgery, John names his orbital cellulitis, his wife's hospital stays for the births, and his gallbladder removal. — 00:04:06 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John says the old-style application requires listing every doctor visit and medical test for the whole family in the last 10 years, with any abnormal results. — 00:04:33

00:04:55 — Summary: no insurance either way, but the exchange was more than twice as fast and less intrusive; buying insurance has gotten dramatically better

  • ★★ At 4:13 p.m. John considers his medical history finished after 2 hours 16 minutes, skipping the information-practices fine print he doesn't understand. — 00:04:55
  • ★★★ John sums up: he got insurance in neither case, but even with the server errors, applying through the ACA exchanges was more than twice as fast as the old way. — 00:04:55
  • ★★★ John says the new way is also much less confusing and intrusive: the old way listed every doctor visit, the new one asked only whether he smoked. — 00:05:24
  • ★★★ John says the only fair comparison is buying insurance before the ACA, not buying a DFTBA.com poster, and as far as he can tell it has gotten dramatically better, though the government needs new servers. (hedged) — 00:05:24 · DFTBA Records

00:05:54 — Sign-off; maybe a bonus video; the shutdown has thrown off the schedule

  • ★ John says he might post a special bonus video before Friday, since the government shutdown has thrown off the Vlogbrothers schedule. (hedged) — 00:05:54 · Vlogbrothers

Humor (significant)

  • After entering his name for the third time, the site asks for his first name again. — 00:00:50 > «Do I know my first name? I mean, at this point, I almost have it memorized.»
  • Frustrated by the failing site, John orders room service on camera. — 00:00:50 > «No, no, no, I don't like mayonnaise. No mayo, yeah.»
  • The ACA form asks him to confirm that no one on the application is incarcerated. — 00:02:04 > «Unless a child of the brothers has done something in the last couple of minutes.»
  • The private form asks for details of any moving violation in the medical history section. — 00:03:03 > «because, of course, that time I rolled through a stop sign is part of my medical history.»
  • Asked whether anyone drank more than 14 drinks a week in the last five years, John says yes. — 00:03:32 > «During the week of the Indianapolis 500.»
  • The diagnosis list reaches 'mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder'. — 00:03:32 > «Oh, I was on a good roll till you got to mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder.»
  • The form asks whether anyone had surgery or discussed surgery. — 00:04:33 > «I mentioned it in conversation.»

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