Lisa's Laws: NY website made getting health insurance easy

This week, between work and Thanksgiving and catching up on several missed episodes of "The Walking Dead," I managed to sign up for a new health insurance policy.

I know, it sounds crazy and I'm pretty shocked myself, given the very loud, very persistent cries of crisis and doom broadcast by certain right-wingers and tea party pundits. But I did it.

Sure, it took a few visits to the New York Health Plan Marketplace websites, mostly because the application was several pages long and because I share a computer with a 12-year-old who is currently writing a screenplay about a superhero named Super Bella and her sidekick Courageous Cora. And I had to call the helpline a few times, once just to clarify the difference between "deductible" and "maximum out of pocket." Also, I have to call back because Chris, the other person on our new Couple plan, wants to know if helicopter rides are covered.

But it all worked out, and, beginning Jan. 1, we'll be paying a bit less for a health plan far superior to the one we have now.

I was worried, for sure, and I know that in some parts of the country website issues continue. But here in New York the website seems to be working pretty well, and each time I called for help a perfectly nice and knowledgeable person answered. I mean, I was expecting chaos and extended wait times and, if contact was ever made, a sort of MadMax-meets-Castro-meets-HAL, the crazed computer from "2001 a Space Odyssey" kind of experience. But it wasn't like that at all. In fact, it was a lot like calling Pottery Barn, but I was on hold less.

Anyway, we've been purchasing our own health insurance for some years now, an expense that, at times, was tempting to cancel — especially since we're pretty healthy. For example:

  • Chris never smoked, and I had my last cigarette on April 6, 1994, in an apartment on Houston Avenue in Middletown and successfully quit with the help of Dr. Thaler, who nudged and prodded and encouraged me until he finally convinced me to try the patch, which worked, and whom I never properly thanked.
  • I get soymilk in my Starbucks.
  • Chris runs, and I always park kinda far away from the entrance when I go to a mall or the supermarket, most especially when I'm driving Chris' big black pickup truck on account of the fact that the truck is, as I just noted, big and it's tricky for me to back out of parking spaces. So I always look for a space I can pull through and park facing out, which means I always have to go to the end of the aisle, back to where there are plenty of wide open spaces and where usually nobody else parks but the people who drive campers.
  • But despite all that we kept paying for health insurance because, well, even soy milk won't protect you from stumbling down the basement stairs if you're carrying a load of laundry and the dog decides to race you to the washing machine, which has happened enough times that I've Googled "cost of broken arm." This, incidentally, can be really expensive, especially if you need a little extra physical therapy. Legs are even more.

    So I'm glad I didn't listen too closely to Rush and Sarah and the woman who used to be on that show with Whoopie but isn't anymore, and that our coverage will be better than before. In fact, I may even order whole milk in my next latte.

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