Cover Oregon board meeting

The Cover Oregon board, pictured here at a Dec. 12 meeting, late Friday extended its enrollment deadline to Jan. 6.

(Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian)

With less than one hour to go and scores of Oregonians still unable to pick a subsidized health insurance plan for January, Oregon's troubled exchange late Friday extended its deadline to pick a plan by 10 days to Jan. 6.

The announcement came during a Cover Oregon

late Friday afternoon, spokesman Michael Cox said. It followed an agreement reached by phone just an hour earlier between

interim executive director Bruce Goldberg and representatives of insurance carriers in the state, sources said.

"I'm at the point where we as an organization will do whatever we can do to get people enrolled," said

. chief executive Dawn Bonder, who sat in on the call. "It is, to me, incredibly amazing that just about every carrier is supportive of 'Let's not punish people for being caught in a situation they have no control over.'"

The extension applies to as many as 45,000 deemed eligible for coverage through the exchange, Cox said, and it will be retroactive to Jan. 1. Premium payments to bind coverage must be made by Jan. 15.

It does not apply to an unspecified number of Oregonians with incomplete applications, Cox said. Cover Oregon workers plan to contact those individuals in coming days to complete their applications for coverage beginning Feb. 1, Cox said.

The decision came in part because of problems the exchange has encountered processing applications by hand, since its website still doesn't work. Many individuals and insurance agents reported problems entering enrollment identification numbers on Cover Oregon's website.

"We certainly recognize that that was one issue," Cox said Friday night. "Another issue, obviously, was high call volume." The exchange received more than 4,000 phone calls Friday, he said.

As of mid Friday, Cover Oregon had enrolled 14,000 people in commercial health plans and 24,000 people in the Medicaid-financed Oregon Health Plan.

But many more were unable to pick a plan by 5 p.m. Friday, the previous deadline, despite efforts by themselves and insurance agents.

According to three insurance agents interviewed, one-half to two-thirds of their pending Cover Oregon applicants were still waiting for information from the exchange that would allow them to pick a plan.

"I have somebody who's going on dialysis next month," said Thomas Reddy of TR Insurance in Eugene. "I get a different answer each time I call and ask about his application."

Some worried the extension would only confuse consumers and complicate efforts by insurers to get payments.

"I see this as false hope," said Lisa Lettenmaier, owner of Health Source NW in Tigard.

Earlier Friday, other consumers were worrying about confirming that they actually had coverage.

Many individuals who were told by Cover Oregon they'd been enrolled said they had not received confirmation from their chosen insurance company. Some were enrolling directly with other insurers because they feared going without coverage Jan. 1.

"I'm not sure what to believe," said Charles Braverman, 62. He said Cover Oregon told him he'd been enrolled Dec. 12, but he'd received no confirmation from Moda Health Inc. "Really, I don't know where I am in this process. I'm going as if Cover Oregon doesn't exist."

Moda Health spokesman Jonathan Nicholas said enrollments through Cover Oregon were "backed up." He declined to say why.

Elizabeth Clewett, 64, enrolled Thursday with help from the office of her legislator, Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Junction City, after a "frustrating and exhausting experience." She had been paying $450 a month for an insurance plan with a $10,000 deductible. Through Cover Oregon, her premium will be $250 a month with a $3,000 deductible and $15 primary care visits. In September, she qualifies for Medicare.

Getting affordable insurance, she said, will be a huge relief, but she lamented the costly failures of the exchange.

"I have no personal animosity toward anyone involved, but Oregonians deserve an explanation of what happened, where deception may have occurred, and who is accountable for the many consequences flowing from these errors," Clewett said.

Ron Bowman, 57, of Gresham, said he and his wife planned to go without coverage in January. He said he successfully submitted his application online Oct. 31. Then he got letters about missing information, including a box he left unchecked indicating his wife's citizenship status.

Bowman said he promptly returned the last letter by mail and fax Dec. 2, but was later told he'd missed the exchange's Dec. 4 application deadline. He's lacked a regular job since closing his produce delivery business two years ago. His wife, Josie, 57, was phased out of her job earlier this year. Her unemployment benefits are nearly exhausted, he said.

"We will roll the dice and hope that good health continues to smile upon us," Bowman said. "Like so many in this country, we are one catastrophic event away from financial ruin. This is just one scenario that national health care reform was conceived to alleviate."

Ron Jackson, 55, of Portland, said he and his wife planned to go without a tax credit for one month because of a Cover Oregon error. He enrolled by phone Dec. 20 after overcoming several processing problems with his application. But a formatting error estimated his tax credit at $28.44 million. It should've been $2,844, he said.

Fixing the mistake will delay coverage by a month, he said, but he isn't angry.

"I've been an engineer for many years, and always when you do something new, there's screw-ups and it takes a while to figure things out, so this isn't surprising," Jackson said. "It's not atypical of any project of complexity, considering how many stakeholders you've got."

Braverman, 62, of Portland, has arranged to extend his current policy with Providence Health System since he hasn't received confirmation of subsidized coverage from Moda. He's eager to get subsidies, though, because they will reduce his premium by more than half.

A retired computer programmer analyst, Braverman said he disagreed with Jackson's assessment of the exchange's problems.

"They led the public to believe this system was going to be functioning right up until Oct. 1," Braverman said. "I think that's egregious."

-- Brent Hunsberger