Last summer, Lorena Alvarado Hill received a series of unexpected medical bills.
A teacher’s aide in Melbourne, Florida, Hill is a single mom who works shifts at J.Crew on the weekends to send her daughter to college. Hill and her mother, who lives with her, had been enrolled in an insurance plan through HealthFirst.
Hill paid nothing toward the premiums for the government-subsidized plan, which previously had covered her scans and other appointments.
Then the bills came.
Hill was on the hook for a $2,966.93 MRI, as well as more than half a dozen doctor visits costing about $200 or $300 each. Without that kind of money on hand, Hill said, she put a few of the bills on payment plans and tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
She discovered, to her surprise, that her insurance had been canceled for “non-payment of premiums.”
The Medical Service
A health insurance plan purchased through the Affordable Care Act federal exchange, healthcare.gov.
The Bill
A monthly premium bill for 1 cent, which in the following months increased incrementally to 5 cents.
The Billing Problem: Small Bill, Big Consequences
Premium subsidies for ACA plans are automatically recalculated every time coverage is changed because of a life event, such as marriage, a change of job, or a child turning 26. In June, Hill removed her mother from the family’s group plan because she turned 65 and became eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.
The change triggered a …