President Obama was able to open the doors so millions of Americans could at least get a foot in the door to try to get health insurance. But that doesn’t mean that once inside the door you are home free, covered for whatever life may throw at you. Now the ACA has a guaranteed issue clause with it, but that can be circumvented with some creativity by the corporate rats.

So after feeling all warm and fuzzy having completed my application on the phone with an employee of Coventry, we sat back and had probably the best Christmas we ever had. All I had to do was stay alive and on Jan. 1 I would achieve the American Dream – being able to see a doctor without having to sell our house!

Over the years I have, I think, been a model of the good citizen. I am involved in civic affairs, give blood, lots and lots of blood, and tutor kids. Shoot, I am a good guy. Well, as you know no good deed goes unpunished.

My nightmare started on Jan. 3rd. I received a cryptic email asking for information that I was sure was on the application. So I called the person back who had helped me with the application. He called up the app and assured me that data was there. So I called their call center. This is where things start falling apart.

I have never worked in a call center, but after a couple weeks, I get the impression of a hive of little cubicles where folks are basically supposed to “handle” customers. So after sitting through a 4 minute menu presentation followed by endless waiting for a live person 10 or 12 times, and maybe thanks to one rather nasty loss of temper on my part, I was able to at least get by this wall for a few moments.

I am not sure what my status is now. I have been told 3 or 4 times that I have insurance. However I really do not want to test it. So right now I must stay healthy no matter how sick I get.

During this trip I did find out that Coventry was bought out by Aetna and their computer systems are not talking. As a veteran of 3 or 4 of these type situations I know what that means – bad data and much clean-up.

Any lessons from my experience so far. Well you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. Translated, that means Thank You, Mr. President for making the insurance companies do what they are supposed to – cover people so they don’t lose their life saving because of an accident or illness. However, as a reasonable humans we all thought that the insurance companies would act as reasonable actors. But no one said they had to.

Through conversations I have found out I am hardly the only one and all of us over 60. Gee, 60 would be an age where the outgo for an insurance company might exceed the income, at least based on tables.

So I have postulated a theory based on only a small amount of data. This is the model that has made Fox News what it is today. Since this is an accepted method of making up news based on Fox I can only conclude that SOME SAY that the insurance companies may be, but not in all cases are, making it hard for those over 60 get signed up for health care. (sarcasm for the humor impaired, I hope)

And hey – someone have Fox call me. They want ACA stories. I bet they would love to hear one about incompetent insurance companies.