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I'm currently unemployed and I'm paying Cobra for medical coverage. I wanted to see what the Healthcare.gov rates were out of curiosity. From what I see so far, it's a poorly designed website. First problem, they ask me how many dependents do I plan to claim on my 2014 tax return. I tell them one, they ask me for the dependents information, I enter it, they ask if I want to have health coverage for this dependent, I say no, they ask for the dependents information again, I'm stuck in a loop. Apparently the thought of a foster child, whose health coverage is paid for by the state, but is still a dependent didn't occur to the rocket scientists that designed the web site.
So change it to zero dependents so I can get past this point. Then they ask if I have coverage, there's no Cobra selection, again, poorly thought out website. They really failed to consider all the possible options people may have. I guess I expected a little better from a 650 million dollar website.
Then there's the issue of my identity. I didn't enter a social security number anywhere on the website, but when it asked to verify my identity, it gave me an error, said to contact the experian credit agency, so it needs to do a credit check before I can sign up for health care?
Last edited by TechGromit; 11-05-2013 at 08:07 PM..
Yes I did last night, they want your blood and guts. Anyway I checked it out to see if we could qualify for a cheaper plan since the new plan my husband will get in January has deductibles. We have never had a plan with a deductible before. My SIL deals with this sort of stuff through her job and I emailed her all the paperwork so she could explain it to us. Now on the Healthcare.gov website I qualified for one of their plans but the average cost is at least $500 a month which is insane. My SIL said it's cheaper to get the insurance through an employer. The cost per paycheck is only like $60 every other week which is fine it's all the upfront costs to meet the deductible that we cannot afford. According to the government "WE" make too much money so we don't qualify for medicade or united healthcare's community plan. I make a little above minimum wage which is a major decrease in salary from my previous job I had 3 years ago in which I was laid off. My husband's salary decreased as well because after 21 years in the same job he was let go, got a new job with less pay but he's doing the same type of work. My current job does not offer benefits but his does. I know it's cheaper for the employer to get a plan with deductibles but what about us poor working class folk who cannot afford the upfront costs? Seems like you need 3 jobs just to pay for health coverage. OK I am done ranting.
A lot of the rates are not correct on the healthcare.gov website. Go directly to the insurer website for the accurate information and start an application there.
Yes I did last night, they want your blood and guts. Anyway I checked it out to see if we could qualify for a cheaper plan since the new plan my husband will get in January has deductibles. We have never had a plan with a deductible before. My SIL deals with this sort of stuff through her job and I emailed her all the paperwork so she could explain it to us. Now on the Healthcare.gov website I qualified for one of their plans but the average cost is at least $500 a month which is insane. My SIL said it's cheaper to get the insurance through an employer. The cost per paycheck is only like $60 every other week which is fine it's all the upfront costs to meet the deductible that we cannot afford. According to the government "WE" make too much money so we don't qualify for medicade or united healthcare's community plan. I make a little above minimum wage which is a major decrease in salary from my previous job I had 3 years ago in which I was laid off. My husband's salary decreased as well because after 21 years in the same job he was let go, got a new job with less pay but he's doing the same type of work. My current job does not offer benefits but his does. I know it's cheaper for the employer to get a plan with deductibles but what about us poor working class folk who cannot afford the upfront costs? Seems like you need 3 jobs just to pay for health coverage. OK I am done ranting.
Large deductibles are the new wave that insurance companies are pushing to keep their companies profitable and shareholders happy. Many companies have offered these plans to their employees in more recent years. Especially companies like Wall Mart, whose employees could not afford to pay even half the cost of the policy, no less the high deductibles that came with them. Obviously these policies are cheaper. The plans that actually pay for most of your medical costs are usually offered by large fortune 500 type companies to people who make above average salaries, sometimes way above average salaries.
If you are not covered under your husband's policy, and you make less than $63,000 as a couple (which it sounds like you do), then you would be entitled to a subsidy if you had to buy a policy on your own. Now whether that policy is cheaper than what your husband's company has is another question. For people who have previously had to purchase their own insurance (no company insurance) the plans offered on the ACA exchanges are usually cheaper for folks who qualify for substantial subsidies.
What your husband has deducted from his check every other week is not the total cost of your husbands policy. If you want to compare costs, you must know the actual full cost of his policy (what the employer pays with what your husband contributes)
If you have never had to purchase health insurance on your own, then you may not fully appreciate or have a good feel for these costs, as the contribution your husband pays does not represent the cost of the policy. I agree, however, that these policies with high deductibles do not serve people of lower incomes very well. They do serve however, to keep you from losing all of your assets (assuming you have any) if either one of you should have a serious illness or accident, in that it does place a maximum Out Of Pocket Cost that you have to make.
If you make 250% or less of the FPL (Federal Poverty Level) that Maximum Cap will be lowered to approx. $2,300 if you purchase a silver plan. That means in any one year, any large medical expenses exceeding this amount would be paid for at 100% after you hit the $2,300 mark.
A lot of the rates are not correct on the healthcare.gov website. Go directly to the insurer website for the accurate information and start an application there.
It is my understanding that to qualify for subsidized premiums or a refund at tax time, you must apply through the exchange. Does anyone have definitive information on this topic?
You do not have to do the application through the marketplace to get the subsidy. You can start the application at the insurer website then you will have to go to the marketplace website, during the application process, to get your true subsidy. But then you come back to the insurer website to complete your application.
You do not have to do the application through the marketplace to get the subsidy. You can start the application at the insurer website then you will have to go to the marketplace website, during the application process, to get your true subsidy. But then you come back to the insurer website to complete your application.
Huh, interesting. I was put in a state of despair looking at the abysmally high rates to insure myself on the healthcare.gov site. It was saying I make a lot of money, and therefore do not qualify for a large subsidy. Yep, apparently $24,000 a year is now living a life of comfort and higher standards ofwhich I should have plenty of money to spend. Ill go directly to the insurance websites and see. Thanks for the info.
I should have been a tester for the clowns that designed this website. I'm finding more problems every time I use it. If you enter your Social Security number, and review your application later, the website changes your number to ***-**-1234 to protect you number against other people seeing your Social Security number. OK fine, but if you press continue, it says your social security number isn't valid. So instead of just hiding your number with *'s and remembering the original number, it really changes your social security number to *'s if you review it. If this is the level of quality control the company who designed it has, I highly doubt the website will be fixed before 2019.
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