Oops! There's no way to add a newborn baby to your ObamaCare coverage

The government geniuses who decided they could run health insurance better than everyone else apparently overlooked the fact that circumstances in people’s lives sometimes change, and it becomes necessary to update your insurance information to reflect that.

People now covered under ObamaCare are getting a rather unpleasant surprise upon the joyous event of having babies added to their families. It turns out giving birth may be easier than giving the baby health coverage. Try going to HealthCare.gov and looking for a way to add your newborn to your coverage. It doesn’t exist. While you’re at it, try looking for a way to indicate a change in your marital status, your job status, your income . . . I’ll save you the trouble. HealthCare.gov doesn’t offer a way to do any of that. Now, you can call your insurer and they’ll take the information and update your insurance, so problem solved, right? Problem not solved. For many people forced to buy coverage on the ObamaCare exchanges – coverage that often features exorbitant premiums to cover mandatory coverage they may or may not even want (including maternity care . . . ahem) – the federal subsidy that comes as part of the deal is the only thing making the coverage even remotely affordable. Having a baby will increase your premium, and will theoretically increase your subsidy, but that will only happen if you can somehow let the federal government know about the change in your circumstance. How do you do that? Don’t ask them. The Associated Press reports:

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In questions and answers for insurers, the government said that the federal insurance marketplace will not be able to add a child until the system's automated features become "available later." It does not provide any clue as to when that might take place. The federal marketplace serves 36 states through HealthCare.gov and call centers. The Medicare agency, which runs the government's other major health programs, is also responsible for expanded coverage under Obama's law. The question-and-answer circular says parents with a new baby will be told to contact their insurer directly "to include the child immediately" on their existing policy. After the federal system is ready to process changes, parents will have to contact the government to formally bring their records up to date. Albright said parents will be able to add a new child to their policy for 30 days.

Making your life better through government! Supposedly they would have had this feature ready to go by now, but they had to postpone it because they were too busy dealing with the fact that the entire web site was completely dysfunctional. The fact that they had three years to build the web site doesn’t appear to matter, but then nothing makes sense in the development of this fiasco. There is, of course, a bright side to this. Americans really don’t need to be checking in with the federal government every time a circumstance in their lives changes, and that’s one of the most insidious things about ObamaCare to begin with. Thanks for the subsidy offer, but if that means I need to keep you in the loop every time something happens in my life . . . no thanks. Americans need to realize that when politicians offer to take care of your needs, that comes with a price you don’t want to pay. At best, you have to deal with their incompetence as we discover they are never as good at running things as their hubris tells them they will be. At worst, you turn yourself into their subject, hardly free to make a move without letting them know. That’s why I keep telling you: It’s freedom you want, not free stuff!

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