Chad Henderson has become the poster boy for the Obamacare exchange roll and one of the few identifiable people who have successfully signed up for insurance on the new website. But if this Reason story is accurate he has not bought insurance yet and may not ever being doing so.
Reason reports that they spoke with Chad’s father, Bill Henderson, by phone and learned that neither he nor his son have actually purchased insurance yet via the exchange website.
Bill Henderson told me that both he and his son were interested
in getting coverage, but that he had not enrolled in any plan yet,
and to his knowledge, neither had his son. He also said that
when they do enroll, getting the most coverage for the least money
would be the goal, and that he expects that he and his son will get
coverage under the same plan.Bill told me that Chad had been looking into plans online. “He
told me that there’s different plans. And we haven’t decided which
plans to enroll in yet.”I asked him whether he and his son had talked about going on
separate plans, and he told me that, “We’ll probably go on the same
plan, more than likely.”
This is directly at odds with what Chad told Post reporter Sarah Kliff in an interview published yesterday:
“I had to wait like everybody else,” he says. “Millions of people
apparently got on the Web site. It took me til about 3 a.m. to create an
account. That was probably the longest thing. After creating an account
and getting logged in, it was pretty smooth sailing.”
Henderson purchased a health insurance plan with a $175 monthly premium.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press also reported that Chad had bought insurance, “He and his dad ended up selecting a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia ‘bronze’ plan — one of the cheapest.” He told Politico the same story.
It’s not hard to figure out why Chad Henderson might exaggerate about his success signing up for Obamacare.
He has volunteered with a local chapter of Organized for Action, a
national advocacy group that promote’s Obama’s legislative agenda. His
decision to sign up early for Obamacare was partially motivated by his
desire to prove that it worked, he said.
He also told the paper “I’m honored, and I’m happy that I could help out with the cause.” B
As pointed out earlier this morning, the extent of Henderson’s political involvement–including six years as an OFA volunteer–has mostly been concealed by larger media outlets.
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