Journey to Kona Day 71: Paying Attention to Details

I got a letter yesterday saying that my health insurance was terminated.  I'd spoken to someone about a month ago and thought that the problem had been taken care of. I didn't open the letter until last night, so I got to think and dream about it through the night.  If I have one fear it's to not have health insurance.  As expensive as health insurance is, and as much as I never go to a doctor, if I had something catastrophic happen during a window of time that I didn't have insurance, well, you know the rest.  So, first thing this morning I called my insurance company, just like I did a month ago.  When they told me that my payment for the month had been cancelled, I at least knew that I hadn't forgotten anything.  When I spoke to the agent last month, we reengaged my autopay and it clearly worked, until it didn't.  And that's why it's important to pay attention to the details.

Last month, the agent made an assumption that made no sense to me.  He said that my credit card charge for my insurance had been cancelled because I'd moved and since I was living in a new zip code, that my premium changed. That didn't really make any sense to me, especially as my payment had been cancelled before I'd moved.  But heck, he must know what he's doing? Right?  I had thought that I'd left the call knowing that my autopay would kick in on April 1st. Which it did, but then it got cancelled again!

Finally, it hit me.  Maybe it was my billing address, which my bank hadn't effectively put on all of my accounts, and I'd had to fix that recently.  But, it turned out to be something more nuanced than that.  I had changed my address with my health insurance company, but didn't change the zip code for my credit card that did the monthly autopay.  And so, when the charge went through, it got cancelled. What's more crazy is that the health insurer doesn't think about what happened and notify me.  They just let me know that I hadn't paid, which didn't make sense to me because I'd set up autopay.

Finally, this agent figured it out, changed the zip code on my credit card and told me that I was still covered.  Sometimes the smallest details can have the largest impact!