One patient left the hospital without being admitted for chest pains after she was warned she might have to pay full-price. She asked MailOnline not to publish a photograph of her face.
- MailOnline spoke with patients who were told they would have to pay their bills in full if they couldn't prove they had insurance
- One was faced with a $3,000 hospital room charge and opted to leave the hospital after experiencing chest pains
- 'Should I be in the hospital? Probably,' she said
- Another, coughing in the cold, walked out without receiving a needed chest x-ray
- Consumers face sticker-shock from medical costs under the new Obamacare system, made worse if they can't prove they're insured
- As many as one-third of new enrollees' applications have seen problems when the government transmits them to insurance companies
Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they've signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren't taking their word for it.
In place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can't afford.
'They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!' a coughing Maria Galvez told MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of Springfield.
She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray.
No x-ray for you: This patient left a Virginia medical facility without receiving a test her doctor recommended.
The x-ray's cost, she was told, would likely be more than $500.
Galvez said she enrolled in a Carefirst Blue Cross bronze plan at a cost of about $450 per month through healthcare.gov, three days before Christmas. 'No one has sent me a bill,' she said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified in a December 11 congressional hearing that the federal government can't say how many new enrollees have written checks for their first month's premiums.
Some may have paid, some may have not,' she conceded.
It's unlikely that a valid insurance card would have changed Galvez' fortunes, however.
Her Carefirst plan, identified on the Obamacare website as BlueChoice Plus Bronze, carries a $5,500 per-person deductible for 2014 - an amount she would have to pay out-of-pocket before her coverage would apply to medical expenses.
The Inova radiology department wouldn't speak with MailOnline, and Carefirst did not respond to a request for comment.
A similar situation frustrated Mary, an African-American small businesswoman who asked MailOnline not to publish her last name. She was leaving the Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia with two family members.
'I had chest pains last night, and they took me in the emergency room,' Mary said. 'They told me they were going to admit me, but when I told them I hadn't heard from my insurance company since I signed up, they changed their tune.'
She told MailOnline that a nurse advised her that her bill would go up by at least $3,000 if she were admitted for a day, and her doctor told her the decision was up to her.
Should I be in the hospital? Probably,' she said. 'Maybe it's one of those borderline cases. I have to think that if I were really in danger, they wouldn't give me the choice. But what if I think I'm covered and I'm really not?'
'The emergency room bill is going to be bad enough.'
The Obamacare system has suffered from a long list of setbacks since its October 1 rollout, starting with an inoperable website and ending with rampant uncertainty about whether Americans who enrolled are actually covered.
'We're telling consumers if they're not sure if they're enrolled they should call the insurer directly,' White House Press Secretary Jay Carney old reporters on December 2.
The Washington Post reported that day that because of computer glitches in the 'back end' of healthcare.gov, enrollment records for as many as one-third of new insurance customers were corrupted or otherwise contain errors.
Given the Obama administration's latest claim that 2.1 million have signed up nationwide, that means as many as 700,000 Americans might falsely believe they have a current health insurance policy.
Mary and others like her, who took the time to enroll but may not follow the daily flood of news about Obamacare, likely don't know one way or the other.
'Why is this so complicated?' she asked. 'I had my own private insurance last year, but they cancelled me in November. I'm not sure which end is up.'
Private industry estimates put the number of policy cancellations as high as 4.7 million in the last quarter of 2013, mostly involving health care plans that didn't meet the Affordable Care Act's strict minimum standards.
No card, no service.
President Obama has attracted widespread criticism, and a 'lie of the year' award from one newspaper's fact-checker, for promising that Americans who liked their health plans would be allowed to keep them.
Dr. John Venetos, a Chicago gastroenterologist, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he is seeing 'tremendous uncertainty and anxiety' among his patients who signed up for Obamacare plans but don't have insurance cards.
'They're not sure if they have coverage,' Venetos said. 'It puts the heavy work on the physician.'
'At some point, every practice is going to make a decision about how long can they continue to see these patients for free if they are not getting paid.'
GALLUP: MOST AMERICANS HAVE OBAMACARE HORROR STORIES
Fifty-nine percent of Americans told Gallup pollsters that they have had negative experiences with the Affordable Care Act, according to the public opinion giant's latest survey.
Just 39 per cent said their experiences were positive.
Only 7 per cent called their Obamacare journeys 'very positive,' but 29 per cent said their interaction with the new system has been 'very negative.'
Gallup interviewed 1,500 uninsured Americans in December, 450 of whom said they had visited health insurance exchange websites.
As dismal as those numbers are, they represent a slight improvement: In November, Gallup found that 63 per cent of uninsured Americans had negative experiences with the president's new health care overhaul.
Hippocratic Oath
I do solemnly vow, to that which I value and hold most dear:
That I will honor the Profession of Medicine, be just and generous to its members, and
help sustain them in their service to humanity;
That just as I have learned from those who preceded me, so will I instruct those
who follow me in the science and the art of medicine;
That I will recognize the limits of my knowledge and pursue lifelong learning to
better care for the sick and to prevent illness;
That I will seek the counsel of others when they are more expert so as to fulfill my
obligation to those who are entrusted to my care;
That I will not withdraw from my patients in their time of need;
That I will lead my life and practice my art with integrity and honor, using my
power wisely;
That whatsoever I shall see or hear of the lives of my patients that is not fitting to
be spoken, I will keep in confidence;
That into whatever house I shall enter, it shall be for the good of the sick;
That I will maintain this sacred trust, holding myself far aloof from wrong, from
corrupting, from the tempting of others to vice;
That above all else I will serve the highest interests of my patients through the
practice of my science and my art;
That I will be an advocate for patients in need and strive for justice in the
care of the sick.
I now turn to my calling, promising to preserve its finest traditions, with the reward of a long
experience in the joy of healing.
I make this vow freely and upon my honor.
©Copyright 2005. Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY.