Then the Charlatans Came Calling

Within 24 hours of being turned down by every health insurer in the United States, telemarketers started calling me. They offered plans for people like me, they said, who couldn't get "traditional insurance."


I actually bought one of these plans, after a 45-minute phone conversation with someone who sounded like Santa Claus (he even chuckled in that grandfatherly way). But the next day, I recalled the adage, "If it sounds too good to be true ..."


So I called the Attorney General's Consumer Division for the state of Kentucky, which is where I live. Having covered news for The Associated Press, I knew that these fellas would tell me straight up if I'd been suckered.


"I hate to tell you this," said a nice lawyer on the other end of the phone, "but that policy you bought isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Tell them that you've talked to us. If they don't refund your money immediately, call me back -- and tell them you'll get us involved, too."


Ironically (or maybe not so ironically), when I called the 800 number again, I received the same elderly gentleman who'd sold me the policy. When I shared what the AG's office told me, it was as if he'd undergone a Jekyll-Hyde personality change. "They can't tell people things like that!" he yelled into the receiver.


I advised him that I was a former AP reporter and that it was the job of each state Attorney General's office to protect consumers. Then I added my one-two punch. "The lawyer with whom I spoke advised me to ask for a full refund. If you're unable to give it to me, I'm to call him back."


Silence.


Within a couple of hours, my credit card had been refunded, and my policy was cancelled.


In this case, I'm luckier than most people. Because of my profession, I knew the ropes and the people to call. But I also realized with a shudder that I'm an anomaly. How many thousands of people in my situation were getting hoodwinked?


Meanwhile, I was still facing my dilemma -- how to find health insurance when no one would sell it to me. I researched the changes to the national health care law, to discover that my child could get insurance from Kentucky if I fell within certain income guidelines.


But the way things stood, until 2014, I was stuck with one option:


A plan called Kentucky Access.


And let me tell you, this thing did not come cheaply.


Tune in for the next part of the tale of Mission Impossible: Health Insurance.