Affordable Care Act Application 15 Pages : Unworkable

What a hoot - to believe that the Obama administration will be so efficient as to have the on line applicants be approved immediately is a laugh. The only way this will work is that the people approving the applications will approve everyone that comes in without checking them out. Asking the average citizen to sit down and fill out a paper application that is 15 pages long is crazy. Most will not do it.

I wonder if this was the plan from the beginning? But being that the application is so complicated that it will take some brain power might be a stepping stone to far for the administration plan to recruit 30 million new Affordable Care Act recipients.

That the cost is now stated at 500 billion more then the first estimate means that it will be 1 trillion more then at first thought. Usually the cost of any government program is at least 10 times more expensive that projected.  I wonder also how that will work out when the country right now is broke. Who will be able to pay for this nightmare?

Really, why would anyone actually vote for the demise of their health care? Who are these people?

Affordable Care Act Application Long and Cumbersome
March 18, 2013
Source: "Will Nation's Uninsured Get Lost in Long Application for Obama Health Care Plan?" Washington Post, March 12, 2013

Emerging new details about the application process for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) suggest that applying for benefits will be an onerous and grueling process. The rosiest of possibilities would liken getting health insurance under the ACA to shopping at your favorite online store. New details reveal that the application process, the product of red tape and bureaucracy, will be a hassle for applicants, says the Associated Press.

• Insurance under the ACA is means-tested, meaning that the amount of benefits a person or family receives is based on his or her income.
• To determine eligibility, the first part of the application process involves at least three major federal agencies that will scrutinize an applicant's identity, income and citizenship.
• After the government has determined how much an applicant earns, additional steps must be taken to pick a health plan.

Understanding insurance jargon is a must for the next step and some fear that the complexities of the process will discourage a lot of uninsured people.

• Besides being complex, completing the form will take a significant amount of time, which has led some advocates to call on the government to revise the application.
• The cumbersome application form for insurance under the Affordable Care Act takes about 30 minutes to fill out online and about 45 minutes on paper.
• Drafts of the paper application and a 60 page description were posted online for public comment.

With more than 60 pages in a description of the insurance application, the dream of the ACA bringing simplicity to health care is far from accomplished.

• The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that it will receive an estimated 4.3 million applications for financial assistance in 2014, with 80 percent of those applications being filled out online.
• If an applicant applies online, he or she should be able to receive instant eligibility, as the government cross-references an applicant with Social Security for birth records, IRS for income data and Homeland Security for immigration status.
• An applicant who has had a recent change in employment status or income should be prepared to provide extra documentation.

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