Metro teen enrolled, charged for his own health insurance plan without any parent approval
A teenage boy was mistakenly enrolled in and charged for his own health insurance plan by the state of Georgia without the approval or knowledge of his parents.
The family only learned about the insurance plan months later when he received a past-due bill for more than $700.
'That's my minor child, his Social Security number, his date of birth,' said Roswell resident Kristen Rose.
'We're doing good just to get his own laundry going, much less be able to be responsible financially for a health insurance premium. That's just outrageous,' she said.
It's just the latest bureaucratic nightmare for Rose.
Last month, Channel 2 Action News investigates told you how Rose and her son were tossed off their Affordable Care Act plan because a federal government mix-up has her listed as being enrolled in Medicare.
'I'm not 65. I'm not disabled. I should not be on Medicare,' Rose told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray last month.
That problem has still not been fixed.
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Rose's ACA plan was canceled on Oct. 31. But starting the next day, Nov. 1, Georgia took over managing its own ACA marketplace called Georgia Access.
In January, we exclusively reported how 20,000 Georgians unknowingly had their current policies cancelled by Georgia Access systems.
They were auto-enrolled by Georgia Access computers in their old policies but also enrolled themselves, creating duplicate polices.
Michelle Fischbach was one of them.
'It was the most panic, the vulnerable feeling,' Fischbach said.
It's likely that a similar computer system autoenrollment led to a teenage boy, without anybody's approval, having his own insurance plan.
'If he's eligible, let me do it. Absolutely. Let me be the financially responsible party. Ask for my permission. Let me choose my plan. Don't just assume and choose for us or on the behalf of him. I didn't give them permission,' Rose said.
Gray reached out on Rose's behalf to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, John King.
An Insurance Commissioner staff member reached out to Rose to work out the mix-up.
Now, Georgia Access staff are working with her to get her son correctly enrolled in a health plan.
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