Couple Says Covered California Plan Saved Woman's Life

ANTELOPE (CBS13) — A local couple says California's new health exchange is literally a lifesaver for them.

The last two night, CBS13 has brought you stories about the problems people have had with Covered California, including being denied care by doctors because of who provided their insurance.

But tonight, you'll hear from Bill and Rachel Peters, who reached out to us with the other side of the story.

Rachel, an Antelope retiree, is a Covered California success story that says the program probably saved her life.

"Absolutely, and I think it could potentially save many live," she said.

She couldn't afford insurance until she and her husband bill signed up for Kaiser coverage through the health exchange. Her first mammogram in years revealed a potentially life-threatening problem that's now been fixed.

"It was something that could've turned into cancer if it had been left alone," she said.

She says she had no trouble finding a doctor or getting treatment in stark contrast to our reports on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Several CBS13 viewers bought Anthem Blue Cross insurance through Covered California and now complain doctors refused to see them.

Rachel and Bill watched those stories and called us to share their positive experience with Kaiser.

"Covered California gets all the blame when it's really the insurance company you get coverage from," Bill said.

If they had one complaint, it's that signing up was a hassle, a problem that still persists. The enrollment site went down just before noon on Thursday and hadn't come back up late into the night.

The unplanned outage comes as Covered California is launching a new ad blitz geared toward getting the uninsured to sign up with the deadline just weeks away.

Rachel's thankful she did.

"My experience has been wonderful and I don't think it could've gone any better," she said.

One option for those still upset with their plans is to switch coverage before the open enrollment deadline on March 31. They can also file a complaint with the California Department of Managed Health Care or the department of insurance.