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Some Can’t Wait for Coverage

Because of the Affordable Care Act, insurers can’t turn Bobby Cox away, even though he has advanced lung cancer. But even if he and his wife Karen can get through on Healthcare.gov and sign up, the coverage won’t take effect until Jan. 1.
 
Tumors don’t wait. Cox, a 60-year-old retired construction worker, begins chemotherapy this week in hope of prolonging his life.  So the Coxes have been calling around to find the best prices for scans, biopsies, anesthesia and so on. They’re using their savings to pay cash, the Tampa Bay Times reports.  
 
Like the Coxes, many Americans are caught in the uninsured gap, hoping to find a plan that can cover them on the first day.   They've been trying to get through on the Healthcare.gov website, only to be frustrated. Now it's time to try again, the Obama administration said Sunday.

It may be that the sickest people sign up in December and the healthiest sign up just before open-enrollment ends March 31, based on studies of what happened in Massachusetts when that state held its first sign-up for mandatory coverage, as Kaiser Health News reports.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.