Jenny Deam from the Houston Chronicle captures so much

Today Jenny Deam wrote the following: Val Holeman of Missouri City measures her days by the number of phone calls she makes, the time she spends on hold, the Internet searches, the rumors she chases, all to find insurance that will cover the treatment keeping her son alive. The mother of four lost her coverage when the national health insurance exchange opened in November. As the first deadlines for the exchange loomed this week, she signed with a plan that she believes will cover her son's rare auto-immune disease. "I want to say it's over today," a skittish Holeman said Wednesday. "But I'm nervous. I won't really know that it will all work out until after I pay my first premium in January," Here and elsewhere, heavy demand has left some 1 million Americans in a queue for health insurance, which led federal officials to push back a key deadline for enrolling for 2016 coverage. Uninsured Americans will have two more days to sign up as part of the Affordable Care Act and be assured coverage begins Jan. 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced late Tuesday. The deadline is Thursday at 11:59 p.m. New Humana plan to offer access to Houston's top hospitals "Our goal is to provide access to affordable coverage, and the additional 48 hours will give consumers an opportunity to come back and complete their enrollment," said Kevin Counihan, CEO of healthcare.gov in a statement. The sense of urgency was particularly strong in Texas, where tens of thousands of people learned suddenly that their Preferred Provider Organization plans had been canceled, leaving those with serious illnesses scrambling to find coverage that includes the doctors they need. For them, time has become measured in the number of calls made, minutes spent on hold, Internet searches and rumors chased all to find not just a plan, but the right plan. Filling a void Last week, Humana Insurance Co. confirmed it will offer a PPO bronze-level plan on Friday with coverage to begin Jan. 1, stepping into a void left by the state's largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. In July, that insurer announced it was eliminating all of its 367,000 PPO plans in Texas, including 88,000 in in the Houston area, both on the exchange and in the individual private market. Are some hospitals better at giving medicine than others? That decision caused even more dismay for some policyholders who quickly discovered the replacement Health Maintenance Organization being offered would not cover some of the city's top-tier hospitals. The Humana PPO plan will not be offered on the exchange, so its premium cost to individuals cannot be lowered by subsidies. But it will cover in-network treatment at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston Methodist and Memorial Hermann, each of the hospitals have confirmed. Further details on the plan remain mostly unknown two days before enrollment opens. And even as many were celebrating the Humana news, pinning hopes on a plan they still knew little about, the Texas Department of Insurance was quietly monitoring the 11th-hour development to determine if it was even legal. Uncertainty and hope Previously, Humana had also eliminated its PPO plans in the Houston area although it offered them in other parts of Texas. Under state law, an insurer that pulls a product out of a market cannot return for five years, explained Ben Gonzalez, a state Insurance Department spokesman. The only exception is if the company reintroduces a similar plan. This week the agency found the new bronze Humana plan similar enough to what existed before to give it the green light. The whiplash between hope and disappointment and then back again is exhausting. Paul Schrager, a 62-year-old law firm recruiter in Houston, lost his Blue Cross and Blue Shield PPO plan and as of Wednesday still wasn't sure what he was going to do. His doctor even said he could keep coming even though the physician is now out of network on the HMO plans. Schrager would just pay $50 for each visit. Made 'worse by lying' Schrager has even heard of people considering using out-of-town addresses to enroll in plans offering better coverage than they can get in Houston. "I don't think you should make a bad situation worse by lying," he said. He checked into the new Humana PPO plan and was told it would cost him roughly $800 per month with a $6,450 deductible. For Val Holeman everything in her life has come in second to finding a new insurance plan that will cover what is needed to keep her child alive. Laten is 10. For four years he has had a terrible and terribly rare autoimmune disease that causes his skin to break down, leaving open wounds. His care is counted not in one or even two doctors but in teams. When the federal insurance exchange market opened last month Holeman found most HMO plans offered did not cover even one of Laten's doctors. "Oh, hell, I have no idea," she softly swore when asked how many hours she had devoted to the hunt. She took it on by herself. Every lead was double and triple checked. Every phone call was at least an hour. Laten's home school lessons neglected. "It's been like a full-time job." Christopher Holeman had good insurance when he worked for an energy company. But then he was laid off in 2012 and decided to launch his own consulting business. The family made do with COBRA. Val Holeman took a night shift at Starbucks just to get insurance benefits. 'Why am I different?' When the ACA plans rolled out in 2013 they jumped to get a family plan. Last year, they paid $1,262.34 per month with no subsidy for a silver PPO plan. They are believers in the law and are glad so many have found insurance through it. What the Holemans can't understand is why insurance companies can cut off individuals from certain providers saying they are too expensive when the very same doctors and hospitals are covered in group plans. "What is the difference between people who buy an individual policies and someone who works at Exxon or Chevron?" asked Christopher Holeman. "I have a college degree and a graduate degree. Why am I different? Is it just because I don't walk through a revolving door and sit in a cubicle?" On Tuesday the family reluctantly signed up for a Humana HMO plan off the exchange. It will cost $1,926 per month with a $1,500 per person out-of-pocket cap. The good news it has no deductible. The better news is it appears Laten's doctors are in-network. Val Holeman won't know until Friday if the Humana plan is better. She's thinking of the bird in the hand. "I have to take this one. I'm too worried about not taking it and then not having the network for Laten's needs," she said. Someday soon she hopes to exhale. Jenny Deam Reporter How many people do you know that believe they have had to buy an inferior product because they are an individual? How many do not have access to their doctors, hospitals or even a subsidy? Please share your story in the comment section and the name of your old plan and what you HAD to settle for. Thank you for making time, because we do not believe this is a finished conversation and our voices will be critical.