By Jeffrey Young, January 10, 2014
Red tape and echoes of Obamacare’s early technological failures have created a potentially life-threatening crisis for a Connecticut woman forced to postpone surgery because her insurance coverage is in doubt.
K.C. Handler, 43, of New Canaan got troubling news from her doctor in early December: Tests revealed a growth on her left lung that might be cancer, and she needed an operation as soon as possible to have it removed. Handler had an appointment Thursday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She couldn’t keep it.
Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, a unit of the Indianapolis-based insurance giant WellPoint, has been unable to confirm her enrollment into a new policy she purchased with the help of an insurance broker through her state’s insurance exchange, AccessHealth CT, in December. The delay in her treatment has been made worse by the bureaucratic nightmare Handler has endured in the long days since she signed up and paid her premium.