Report: Thousands hit by O-Care coverage delays

Thousands of consumers who bought health insurance through the ObamaCare exchanges still lack coverage because of problems with the program’s enrollment system.

Many consumers in California, Nevada and Massachusetts who have already paid their premiums and picked a plan are still not covered, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday. Many of those consumers have been forced to delay medical treatments or pay out-of-pocket expenses.

{mosads}In other cases, people have had a “life event,” such as a marriage or birth of a child requiring them to update their coverage status. But those changes have not gone into effect, even months after being requested.

According to the Journal, there aren’t exact numbers on how many people have been affected by the enrollment issues, but the report says the total is likely a fraction of the 8 million who signed up for insurance through the new marketplaces.

The report found that Minnesota has a 6,500 backlog for coverage change requests because of “life events” and Oregon is processing 8,200 of its own requests.

The ObamaCare exchanges have been marred by a series of problems since they opened last year.

The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services recently found that the exchanges still lacked a proper verification system to determine consumers’ eligibility for insurance or subsidies.

The federal healthcare exchange, HealthCare.gov, saw severe delays in handling enrollments when launched, and dozens of states around the country have also handed over management of their exchanges to the federal government after major technical difficulties.