Ariel Quirolo says she was nearly left without health insurance after being incorrectly flagged over her immigration status despite being a U.S. citizen.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento-area small business owner says she was left without health insurance after being incorrectly flagged as not meeting immigration status requirements — despite being a U.S. citizen born in California.
It started, she said, with a termination notice.
“I received a letter from Kaiser and Covered California stating that my insurance was terminated as of March 31st,” said Ariel Quirolo, a small business owner.
She said she then received an explanation from Covered California that left her confused.
“Saying that I do not currently qualify at this time because the information about your immigration status does not match the records that we checked for you,” Quirolo said.
Quirolo said losing coverage created serious concern because of ongoing medical conditions.
“I have a brain tumor that has to be checked up on. I just had a hearing test for it. I have thyroid problems like a lot of women my age. That requires daily medication,” she said.
She said she tried repeatedly to reach both Covered California and Sacramento County Human Assistance.
“You cannot reach them by phone… they send you sort of in an endless loop… they say, we’re sorry, a worker’s not available to speak to you right now,” Quirolo said.
She said even in-person attempts did not bring clarity, and the uncertainty left her worried about a gap in coverage.
“I will be uninsured in a week and a half if I can’t get this figured out. And that’s when I contacted you,” she said.
After ABC10 began asking questions, Quirolo said her case was escalated. She was connected with an investigator and an ombudsman, and her coverage was ultimately reinstated.
“If you didn’t open up your Instagram messages and message me back and we didn’t get on the phone, …. I wouldn’t have health insurance right now,” she said.
Even so, she said the situation raised broader concerns.
“What other incorrect information might be out there?” she said. “Who else is having to deal with this?” and “So I just, I would really love to speak to somebody who can answer how this happened,” she added.
The news team brought Quirolo’s concerns to the agencies involved.
Covered California and Sacramento County officials said the issue stemmed from human error. The county adds that citizenship verification is a manual process, and in this case, the worker processing the paperwork unintentionally selected the wrong option.
ABC10 asked Covered California if they’re aware of other cases where people have been incorrectly flagged, or if this is a common issue. They told us they are not aware of any system-wide problems. Covered California also said it tracks appeals and hearing requests, but does not separately track how many of those cases are tied specifically to administrative errors.
ABC10 also asked Sacramento County Human Assistance what safeguards are in place to prevent people from wrongly losing coverage. They said anyone receiving a discontinuance notice should contact the DHA service center right away and ask for the case to be reviewed, since there can be multiple reasons for a termination.
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