Metro teen enrolled, charged for his own health insurance plan without any parent approval
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.
TRENDING STORIES:
Marjory Taylor Greene's ex-husband apologizes for yelling racist slurs at 3 Muslim women
Tourist in custody for trying to access one of world's most isolated tribes, brings Diet Coke
Homeland Security: 1,500 undocumented immigrants arrested in Georgia since January
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Why young Americans dread turning 26 as they face health insurance chaos
Amid the challenges of adulthood, one rite of passage is unique to the United States: the need to find your own health insurance by the time you turn 26. That is the age at which the Affordable Care Act declares that young adults generally must get off their family's plan and figure out their coverage themselves. When the ACA was voted into law in 2010, what's known as its dependent coverage expansion was immediately effective, guaranteeing health insurance to millions of young Americans up to age 26 who would otherwise not have had coverage. But for years, Republicans have whittled away at the infrastructure of the original ACA. Long gone is the requirement to buy insurance. Plans sold in the ACA's online insurance marketplaces have no stringent quality standards. Costs keep rising, and eligibility requirements and subsidies are moving targets. The erosion of the law has now created an 'insurance cliff' for Americans who are turning 26 and don't have a job that provides medical coverage. Some, scared off by the complexity of picking a policy and by the price tags, tumble over the edge and go without insurance in a health system where the rate for an emergency room visit can be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. Today, an estimated 15% of 26-year-olds go uninsured, which, according to a KFF analysis, is the highest rate among Americans of any age. If they qualify, young adults can sign up for Medicaid, the federal-state program for Americans with low incomes or disabilities, in most but not all states. Otherwise, many buy cheap subpar insurance that leaves them with insurmountable debt following a medical crisis. Others choose plans with extremely limited networks, losing access to longtime doctors and medicines. They often find those policies online, in what has become a dizzyingly complicated system of government-regulated insurance marketplaces created by the ACA. The marketplaces vary in quality from state to state; some are far better than others. But they generally offer few easily identifiable, affordable, and workable choices. 'The good news is that the ACA gave young people more options,' said Karen Pollitz, who directed consumer information and insurance oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration. 'The bad news is the good stuff is hidden in a minefield of really bad options that'll leave you broke if you get sick.' Publicly funded counselors called 'navigators' or 'assisters' can help insurance seekers choose a plan. But those programs vary by state, and often customers don't realize that the help is available. The Trump administration has cut funding to publicize and operate those navigator programs. In addition, changes to Medicaid eligibility in the policy bill recently passed by Congress could mean that millions more ACA enrollees lose their insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Those changes threaten the very viability of the ACA marketplaces, which currently provide insurance to 24 million Americans. In dozens of interviews, young adults described the unsettling and devastating consequences of having inadequate insurance, or no insurance at all. Damian Phillips, 26, a reporter at a West Virginia newspaper, considered joining the Navy to get insurance as his 26th birthday approached. Instead, he felt he 'didn't make enough to justify having health insurance' and has reluctantly gone without it. Ethan Evans, a 27-year-old aspiring actor in Chicago who works in retail, fell off his parents' plan and temporarily signed up for Medicaid. But the diminished mental health coverage meant cutting back on visits to his longtime therapist. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat and the first Gen Z member of Congress, was able to quit his job and run for office at 25 only because he could stay on his mother's plan until he turned 26, he said. Now 28, he is insured through his federal job. 'The ACA was groundbreaking legislation, including the idea that every American needs health care,' he said. 'But there are pitfalls, and one of them is that when young adults turn 26, they fall into this abyss.' Back in 2010, the decision to make 26 the cutoff age for staying on a parent's insurance was 'kind of arbitrary,' recalled Nancy-Ann DeParle, deputy chief of staff for policy in the Obama White House. 'My kids were young , and I was trying to imagine when my child would be an adult.' Before that time, children were often kicked off family plans at much younger ages, typically 18. The Obama administration's idea was that young adults were most likely settling into careers and jobs with insurance by 26. If they still didn't have access to job-based insurance, Medicaid and the ACA marketplaces would offer alternatives, the thinking went. But over the years, the courts, Congress, and the first Trump administration eviscerated provisions of the ACA. By 2022, a shopper on a federal government-run marketplace had more than 100 choices, many of which included expensive trade-offs, presented in a way that made comparisons difficult without spreadsheets. Jack Galanty, 26, a freelance designer in Los Angeles, tried to plan for his 26th birthday by seeking coverage on the California insurance marketplace that would ensure treatment for his mild cerebral palsy and for HIV prevention. 'You're scrolling for what feels like years, looking at 450 little slides, at the little bars, and trying to remember, 'Was the one I liked No. 12 or 13?'' he recalled. 'It feels like it's nearly impossible to make a good choice in this scenario.' Out-of-pocket expenses have soared. Complex plans in the lightly regulated marketplaces featured rising premiums, high deductibles, and requirements that patients pay a significant portion of the cost of care, often 20% — a charge known as coinsurance. More than half of Americans ages 18 to 29 have incurred medical debt in the past five years, a KFF Health News data investigation found. Few have the reserves to pay it off. The networks of doctors to choose from in these plans are often so limited that an insured person struggles to get timely appointments. It can even be hard to find the official websites amid an explosion of look-alikes operated by commercial brokers. Sharing her contact information with one site that appeared legitimate left Lydia Herne, a social media producer in Brooklyn, 'drowning' in texts and phone calls offering plans of uncertain and unregulated quality. 'It never ends,' said Herne, 27. Young Invincibles, an advocacy group representing young adults, runs its own 'navigator' program to help young people choose health insurance plans. 'We hear the frustration,' said Martha Sanchez, the group's former director of health policy and advocacy. 'Twenty-six-year-olds have had negative experiences in a process that's become really complex. Many throw up their hands.' Elizabeth Mathis, 29, and Evan Pack, 30, a married couple in Salt Lake City, turned to the marketplaces two years ago, after Pack went uninsured for a 'really scary' year after he turned 26. 'Every time he got in the car, I thought, 'What if?'' Mathis said. The couple pays more than $200 a month for a high-deductible health plan backed by a federal subsidy (the kind set to expire next year). It's a significant expense, but they wanted to be sure they had access to contraception and an antidepressant. But last year, Pack suffered serious eye problems and underwent an emergency appendectomy. Their plan left them $9,000 in debt, for medical care billed at over $20,000. 'Technically, we gambled in the right direction,' Mathis said. 'But I don't feel like we've won.' The ACA was supposed to help consumers find affordable, high-quality plans online. The legislation also tried to expand Medicaid programs, which are administered by states, to provide health insurance to low-income Americans. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states could not be forced to expand Medicaid. Ten states, led mostly by Republicans, have not done so, leaving up to 1.5 million Americans, who could have qualified for coverage, without insurance. Even where Medicaid is available to 26-year-olds, the transition has often proved precarious. Madeline Nelkin of New Jersey, who was studying social work, applied for Medicaid coverage before her 26th birthday in April 2024 because her university's insurance premiums were more than $5,000 annually. But it was September before her Medicaid coverage kicked in, leaving her uninsured while she fought a chest infection over the summer. 'People tell you to think ahead, but I didn't think that meant six months,' she said. When Megan Hughes, 27, of Hartland, Maine, hit the cliff, she went without. An aide for children with developmental delays, she has a thyroid condition and polycystic ovary syndrome. She looked for a health care plan but found it hard to understand the marketplace. (She didn't know there were navigators who could help.) Now she can't afford her medicine or see her endocrinologist. 'I'm tired all the time,' Hughes said. 'My cycles are not regular anymore at all. When I do get one, it's debilitating.' She is hoping a new job will provide insurance later this year. Traditionally, most Americans with private health insurance got it through their jobs. But the job market has changed dramatically since the ACA became law, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, with the rise of a gig economy. Over 30% of people ages 18 to 29 said in recent surveys that they were working or have worked in short-term, part-time, or irregular jobs. The ACA requires organizations with 50 or more employees to offer insurance to people working 30 hours per week. This has led to a growing number of contract employees who work up to, but not past, the hourly limit. Many companies, which say they can't afford the rising costs of traditional insurance, offer their employees only a modicum of help, perhaps around $200 per month toward buying a marketplace plan, or a bare-bones company plan. Young people juggling part-time jobs and insurance options face bumpy, daunting transitions. In Oklahoma, Daisy Creager, 29, has had three employers over the past three years. Insurance was important to her, not least because her former husband had Type 1 diabetes. As she left the first of those jobs, her husband's endocrinologist helped the couple stockpile less expensive insulin from Canada, since they would be uninsured. After a few months, they bought a marketplace plan, but it was expensive and 'didn't cover a lot,' she said. When she found a new job, she dropped that plan, only to discover that her new insurance coverage didn't start until the end of her first month of employment. The couple would be uninsured for a few weeks. A few days later, she came home to find her husband unconscious on the floor, in a diabetic coma. After hovering near death in an intensive care unit for four days, he woke up and began to recover. 'I think I've done everything right,' Creager said. 'So why am I in a position where the health insurance available to me doesn't cover what I need, or I can barely afford my premiums, or worse, at times I don't even have it?' Kathryn Russell, 27, developed excruciating back pain two months before her 26th birthday. After extensive testing, doctors determined she needed a complex surgery, which her surgeon couldn't schedule until after she would be off her family's insurance plan. Forget the pain and the fear of the operation, she said, it was insurance that kept her up at night. 'There's this impending terror of, 'What am I going to do?'' she recalled. (One day before she turned 26, her father's company agreed to keep her on his plan for six more months, if he paid higher premiums.) The idea that the ACA would offer a variety of good options for people turning 26 has not worked as well as the legislation's authors had hoped. The 'job lock' tying insurance to employment has long plagued the United States workforce. Young adults need guidance on their options beforehand, said Sanchez of Young Invincibles. None of those interviewed for this story, for example, knew there were navigators to help them find insurance on the online marketplaces. Experts agree that the marketplaces need stronger regulation. In 2023, the federal government defined clearer standards for what plans in each tier of insurance should offer, such as better prescription drug benefits, defined copays for X-rays, or coverage for emergency room visits. Certain types of basic care, such as primary care, should require just a small copay for at least a small number of initial visits. Each insurer must offer at least one plan that complies with these new standards for every level, known as an 'easy pricing' option or a 'standard plan.' Most plans on the marketplaces don't meet these criteria. Federal and state regulators had long planned to cull such 'noncompliant' plans, gradually — fearing that doing so too quickly would scare insurers away from participating. But with the priorities of the new Trump administration now in focus, and a Republican majority in Congress, it's far from clear what course President Donald Trump, who sought to repeal the ACA outright in his first term, will take. There are hints: Subsidies to help Americans buy insurance, adopted during the Biden administration, are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless the Republican-led Congress extends them. If the subsidies expire, premiums are likely to rise sharply for plans sold on the marketplaces, leaving insurance out of reach for many more young adults. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Is inflation eating your savings? How the 'Big Beautiful Bill' offers some relief
President Donald Trump's tax and spending package introduces annual inflation adjustments on many new items that will give Americans much needed help to better keep up with rising prices, even if it may reduce government revenue for programs. The mega tax law, dubbed Trump's Big Beautiful Bill,has made more items 'indexed to inflation,' or set to receive an automatic cost-of-living adjustment each year. Americans already see these annual inflation adjustments in Social Security benefits, for example. The adjustments help preserve purchasing power or stave off an increase in tax burdens because of inflation. Without indexing, the value of benefits would decrease over time, analysts said. How Child Tax Credit lost value Th popular Child Tax Credit (CTC) is a prime example of how an unindexed tax provision gets eroded over time, analysts said. From 2018 to 2024, the CTC's $2,000 maximum value and its income eligibility thresholds have remained the same. "The bout of unexpectedly high pandemic-era inflation means that the CTC's real value has been eroded in recent years," wrote John Ricco, associate director of policy analysis at The Budget Lab at Yale, in April. If it had been indexed to inflation, the CTC's value would have been $2,600 by 2026, he said. Additionally, fewer parents in 2026 (87%) would have benefitted than in 2018 (91%), he estimated. "But the per-child average benefit, expressed in 2026 dollars, would fall from $520 in 2018 to $400 in 2026 − a decline of one-quarter," Ricco said. What new items will the new tax and spending act adjust for inflation? Items that will begin being indexed for inflation in 2026 include: $2,200 child tax credit $500,000 ($600,000 for eligible small businesses) employer-provided childcare credit $5,250 employer educational assistance $2,000 Form 1099 reporting threshold Beginning in 2028, the $5,000 so-called "Trump account" and $2,500 employer contribution to such accounts will become inflation adjusted. 'This is something we've needed for some time,' said Rob Burnette, investment adviser representative and professional tax preparer at Outlook Financial Center. Americans are hurt without inflation adjustments, he said. Why isn't everything indexed to inflation? But even though inflation adjustments are positive for taxpayers, the Treasury loses necessary revenue to fund programs when they're in place, some financial experts say. 'Indexed for inflation is always good for a taxpayer,' said Richard Pon, a certified public accountant in San Francisco. 'Unfortunately, not all amounts are indexed for inflation as that would increase tax benefits and decrease Treasury revenue.' For instance, those lawmakers who drew up the legislation in 1983 to tax Social Security chose not to adjust the thresholds to inflation so that eventually everyone would pay income tax on benefits, Senate records show. More revenue collected from taxing Social Security help keep the fund solvent. In 2023, 3.8% of the Social Security trust fund's income came from taxing those benefits, according to the 2024 Social Security Trustee Report. That's forecast to rise to 6.6% in 2033 as more people pay taxes on their benefits. Income thresholds to determine who must pay taxes on Social Security benefits have not been adjusted for inflation since taxes on the benefits were introduced in 1984. That means with each passing year, an increasing proportion of seniors have been reaching those low thresholds and paying taxes on their benefits. In 2021, about half of beneficiaries paid income tax on their Social Security benefits, according to the Congressional Budget Office. By 2050, that's expected to rise to more than 56%, a Social Security analysis said in 2015. 'To be responsible about it, there would be a need to find revenues to replace what would be lost,' said Jordan Gilberti, senior lead planner and certified financial planner at financial advisory Facet. Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@ and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sick of inflation? Here's where the 'Big Beautiful Bill' offers relief
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Is inflation eating your savings? How the 'Big Beautiful Bill' offers some relief
President Donald Trump's tax and spending package introduces annual inflation adjustments on many new items that will give Americans much needed help to better keep up with rising prices, even if it may reduce government revenue for programs. The mega tax law, dubbed Trump's Big Beautiful Bill,has made more items 'indexed to inflation,' or set to receive an automatic cost-of-living adjustment each year. Americans already see these annual inflation adjustments in Social Security benefits, for example. The adjustments help preserve purchasing power or stave off an increase in tax burdens because of inflation. Without indexing, the value of benefits would decrease over time, analysts said. How Child Tax Credit lost value Th popular Child Tax Credit (CTC) is a prime example of how an unindexed tax provision gets eroded over time, analysts said. From 2018 to 2024, the CTC's $2,000 maximum value and its income eligibility thresholds have remained the same. "The bout of unexpectedly high pandemic-era inflation means that the CTC's real value has been eroded in recent years," wrote John Ricco, associate director of policy analysis at The Budget Lab at Yale, in April. If it had been indexed to inflation, the CTC's value would have been $2,600 by 2026, he said. Additionally, fewer parents in 2026 (87%) would have benefitted than in 2018 (91%), he estimated. "But the per-child average benefit, expressed in 2026 dollars, would fall from $520 in 2018 to $400 in 2026 − a decline of one-quarter," Ricco said. What new items will the new tax and spending act adjust for inflation? Items that will begin being indexed for inflation in 2026 include: Beginning in 2028, the $5,000 so-called "Trump account" and $2,500 employer contribution to such accounts will become inflation adjusted. 'This is something we've needed for some time,' said Rob Burnette, investment adviser representative and professional tax preparer at Outlook Financial Center. Americans are hurt without inflation adjustments, he said. Why isn't everything indexed to inflation? But even though inflation adjustments are positive for taxpayers, the Treasury loses necessary revenue to fund programs when they're in place, some financial experts say. 'Indexed for inflation is always good for a taxpayer,' said Richard Pon, a certified public accountant in San Francisco. 'Unfortunately, not all amounts are indexed for inflation as that would increase tax benefits and decrease Treasury revenue.' For instance, those lawmakers who drew up the legislation in 1983 to tax Social Security chose not to adjust the thresholds to inflation so that eventually everyone would pay income tax on benefits, Senate records show. More revenue collected from taxing Social Security help keep the fund solvent. In 2023, 3.8% of the Social Security trust fund's income came from taxing those benefits, according to the 2024 Social Security Trustee Report. That's forecast to rise to 6.6% in 2033 as more people pay taxes on their benefits. Income thresholds to determine who must pay taxes on Social Security benefits have not been adjusted for inflation since taxes on the benefits were introduced in 1984. That means with each passing year, an increasing proportion of seniors have been reaching those low thresholds and paying taxes on their benefits. In 2021, about half of beneficiaries paid income tax on their Social Security benefits, according to the Congressional Budget Office. By 2050, that's expected to rise to more than 56%, a Social Security analysis said in 2015. 'To be responsible about it, there would be a need to find revenues to replace what would be lost,' said Jordan Gilberti, senior lead planner and certified financial planner at financial advisory Facet. Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@ and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.
