Health insurance reactivated without consent. Escalation appeal denied.

In late 2022 my wife graduated college, we moved apartments, and we both got new jobs that offer health insurance. We cancelled our healthcare.gov plan with Aetna in late December and thought nothing else of it, that is until trying to file our taxes for 2023. Our coverage was reactivated without our knowledge or consent (common problem? someone looking for commission?) and we are facing a $9,000 tax bill after not paying for the plan for a full year.

When we found this out while doing our taxes in February 2023, we contacted healthcare.gov and were told that it showed we cancelled our coverage, then two weeks later it was reactivated. We were told we would hear back within 60 days. Ok no problem, filed for a tax extension, never heard anything back, contacted them again and said it would be escalated. Never heard anything back, called again and were told to wait.

We just called today and were told that the case was closed and a letter was sent to us. They sent it to our old address, which isn’t even listed as our address on healthcare.gov. They are denying our appeal because there were claims paid. We never paid any monthly payments to Aetna and never used it for any doctors visits, we used our employers insurance. Presumably any information or card they mailed was sent to our old address. The ONLY claims paid were at our pharmacy. When picking up prescriptions they never asked for our insurance, and never had any paper work telling us what insurance was being used. There was never any indication or way for us to tell that our coverage was reactivated.

How screwed are we? I talked to a supervisor at healthcare.gov and they just kept repeating there was nothing they could do when asking to reevaluate our case. We certainly can’t afford to pay the $9,000. Is it worth it to look into legal advice? I just don’t know what our options are at this point.