A Washington state mom, hailed by President Obama when she signed up for ObamaCare last month, is now refusing to buy the new national-health insurance after massive foul-ups priced her out of the market.
“You guys really screwed me over,” Jessica Sanford, 48, fumed on the Facebook page of the Washington state health exchange.
Sanford, the single mother of a teenage son diagnosed with ADHD, wrote the White House in October to say she cried for joy when was able to sign up for coverage for less than $200 a month.
“So much stress lifted,” she wrote in an emotional letter, which Obama read during a press conference last month.
The federal sign-up Web site has been dogged by massive glitches. But in his Rose Garden remarks, Obama cited Sanford’s case as a success story to show that the state exchanges were functioning well.
“That’s what the Affordable Care Act is all about,” he said. The system “is working just fine.”
But Sanford soon got a letter from Washington authorities saying they had miscalculated her eligibility for a tax credit, and she’d have to pay $280 a month for the same “gold plan” she thought would cost $198.
Sanford, a professional court reporter, said she was annoyed, but decided to grin and bear it.
Then last week, another letter from the exchange arrived, saying that a new error was discovered and that she was eligible “for a Federal Tax Credit of $0.00.”
The state offered her a $390-a-month “silver” plan or a $324-a-month “bronze” plan, both with high deductibles. Each was too expensive for Sanford.
Officials later admitted that she was one of about 8,000 people in Washington state who received the wrong information about their subsidies because of a “systems error.”
“I had a good cry,” Sanford told CNN.
She said she decided not to get any insurance — but will have to pay the individual mandate penalty, which is $95 or 1 percent of her income in 2014 .
“Now I have been priced out and will not be able to afford the plans you offer,” she wrote on the Washington HealthPlanFinder’s Facebook page.
“But I get to pay $95 and up for not having health insurance. I am so incredibly disappointed and saddened. You majorly screwed up.”
“The Exchange would like to sincerely apologize to Jessica Sanford and all those affected in Washington State by this error,” he said.
Sanford said she had been “ecstatic” when she first signed up.
“I couldn’t wait to call the doctor for an appointment on January 2nd,” she told CNN.
Her new coverage would have gone into effect Jan. 1.
Sanford said she voted She added that she voted for Obama twice and supported his health-care reform.
Now she regrets her ObamaCare experience and the way the president used her letter. “I feel awful about that,” she said.