Covered California: Naturalization Cert/Cert of Citizenship?!

January 11, 2015 7:51 PM

I'm trying to apply for health insurance through Covered California, and I've reached the "Household" section of their online form. I'm a naturalized citizen. My understanding is that a passport is perfectly valid proof of citizenship, but unfortunately, once I check the "naturalized" radio box, a section pops up prompting me to enter either my naturalization certificate or my certificate of citizenship — neither of which I have, and acquiring which may cost a good chunk of money and also put me past the open enrollment period. How do I get Covered California to accept my passport? Has anyone here been in a similar situation? Thanks! (An extra complication is that I'm not currently in California, though I could probably get my family to act on my behalf if my physical presence is required somewhere.)
posted by archagon to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)

Response by poster: Also, side question: due to this complication, I've been kind of putting off getting health insurance (as I do with all things in life) until the last month. Is there some sort of waiting period or secondary deadline that will make registration a whole lot more urgent than just "sometime before February 15th"?
posted by archagon at 7:55 PM on January 11, 2015

Have you tried calling Covered California? They still have expanded phone hours, so even if you're not in the same time zone you should be able to reach them. I think I only had to wait fifteen minutes or so the last time I called, which was near the end of the day. They have been really, really helpful every time I've called-- much more so than talking to Anthem directly, in my experience.

If you do not enroll before the 15th, and pay before a date near the end of the month, you will not be able to be covered for February. If you enroll after January 15th but before February 15th, you would be able to get coverage for March. If you miss the February 15th deadline, you would not be able to enroll unless there are other circumstances at play that would extend your own enrollment period, as far as I know. Good luck!
posted by jetlagaddict at 7:59 PM on January 11, 2015

Response by poster: I tried calling, but unfortunately, as I am abroad, my only phone access is via Wi-Fi... and it's spotty, at best, to say nothing of the incredibly long wait times required to actually talk to anyone at CC. Maybe it's better now? I'll definitely try again tomorrow, last time I called was during the start of open enrollment.

Thanks for the info on Jan. 15th, that's really good to know!
posted by archagon at 8:01 PM on January 11, 2015

This list of documents says a passport should be all you need, though you may have to send in a scan. Just as a warning, I may have needed information sent physically through the mail to finish enrolling (or at the least, it was helpful to have.)

Ah, yeah, I don't know that a wi-fi connection would be good enough; did you try out the live chat function at all? Could a relative phone and ask?
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:11 PM on January 11, 2015

Response by poster: Uh, the website kind of broke last time I tried live chat! The Wi-Fi where I'm staying right now isn't bad, though, so I'll try calling tomorrow.

I know it's theoretically possible to upload passport scans on the CC website since people have reported doing it for verification purposes at the end of the registration process, but unfortunately that section of my profile doesn't exist. In my situation, there's no way to proceed unless I lie about my naturalization status. I really hope I don't have to mail anything!
posted by archagon at 8:17 PM on January 11, 2015

I had a similar situation, through healthcare.gov rather than CC. I am a documented, legal permanent resident of these here United States but their online form would not accept my alien number, my greencard number or even my SSN. I called many times but got no satisfaction, so I ended up turning to a local agency to advocate for me. It still took time (oh, so much time) but in the end I got it sorted with some emails. I managed to submit stuff online eventually, but they took a while to assess it.

So I guess my advice is to maybe find someone that works along the system to help you out, or even an insurance agent could be of use to you (based on my understanding of what they do, I've never actually used one). If you have access to a fax machine (I know, I know) it would be a good 'mail' substitute.
posted by BeeJiddy at 8:45 PM on January 11, 2015

Oh no, you shouldn't have to mail in anything-- they encourage scans and faxes-- but you might need information that is physically mailed to you. Maybe check with them about what gets mailed to you and how to best complete enrollment given your circumstances abroad as well as how to best include your naturalization information.
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:58 PM on January 11, 2015

Call if you can. In my experience, the live chat workers are much less helpful than the phone staff, to the extent that I wondered if they're not native English speakers.
posted by Scram at 9:32 PM on January 11, 2015

Response by poster: I reached someone today. Thanks to their asinine website, it looks like they can't get past this prompt without one of these two documents, regardless of whether it's done online or via mail. Sigh.
posted by archagon at 5:31 PM on January 12, 2015

Response by poster: Now I just need to figure out a way to get a certificate of citizenship, while abroad, when I already have my passport, within the next few weeks, without spending hundreds of dollars.
posted by archagon at 5:35 PM on January 12, 2015

Response by poster: Looks like a certificate of citizenship application takes 6 months and costs $600. WTF is this.
posted by archagon at 5:42 PM on January 12, 2015

Best answer: OK, I called them again, and this time the representative told me that it's OK to put in all zeroes for that prompt (either option). Verification of citizenship will be requested later, but I'm already aware that people have gone through with this by way of uploaded passport scans. So... phew?
posted by archagon at 6:45 PM on January 12, 2015

Response by poster: Just finished the application process, and everything seems to be OK pending confirmation of citizenship and income. Interestingly, in the PDF generated for the application at the end of the process, neither the naturalization number nor the citizenship certificate number make an appearance. So I guess it was only a technical hurdle, not a bureaucratic one.
posted by archagon at 7:09 PM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]