http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/

I cannot get on it.

If the latter, it works great. You can get info, find out what premiums will be, which plans include providers you prefer, deductibles/copays/coinsurance, etc.

I've had no hangups or delays since they separated the application process from information process.

At this point, I think most people are gathering information, and will think about it before selecting a plan and signing up ready to pay premiums.

But, I totally agree they missed the boat on this aspect, and some folks need to apologize to the American public.

3/4 of the time it is slow, or kicks me out and I have to relogin or I cannot log in at all due to too much traffic.

I broker for private insurance and the exchange both..have put 4 people so far with the exchange..

Frustrating when I have someone in my office and cannot get on the site..

I think the real crunch will come as we approach the December 15th deadline for having applications in (I think that is the deadline).

but try to actually register someone is near impossible. On 4 different occasions I typed in my password and it kicked me out and I had to go back in and re-register each time..

Frustrating to say the least.

The plans are not that great..the 4 people I put on it were lower income and in good health so the high out of pocket did not bother them and they paid either zero or low premium.

People who have decent income are going with private insurance

Sounds like it was exactly what they wanted, and probably couldn't get from the insurance industry in the past.

wait until they have to use it..very high deductibles and coinsurance.. when they get hit with a $5000 or 6000 deductible + 80/20 for another 5000 that low premium won't look as attractive..and that is for one person..what if 2 people in the family use it..they won't be able to pay the deductible let alone the coinsurance

The plans on the exchanges could have been better designed.

My wife is losing her health insurance coverage affective Jan 1st her arrier is dropping their association plan-she has major pre ex.. not eligible for any subsidy..ran both private and exchange for her..private insurance was almost half the cost of the exchange with less deductible and coinsurance.

The exchange is great for people with low to moderate income due to being subsidized and in great health but otherwise..not so great.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but from what I've seen, ACA would have dramatically lowered my premiums and out-of-pocket exposure back in the day I paid for a commercial insurance policy --even though I had employer insurance -- to allow me to tell my employer to stuff it without worrying about whether I could get insurance.

Most of the people here, report better premiums than they had before, even in higher level plans. And, the subsidies are substantial.

There is no question that the next step is to reduce the out-of-pocket exposure for folks, but insurance companies still are responsible for designing the plans (within the basic requirements). If they could have been better designed, it's the insurance industry's fault.

The "Learn" section doesn't have the login problems, but it provides garbage info. It doesn't even ask my age, and it quotes policies I cannot possibly buy (catastrophic coverage is only available for under-30, for example. The plans that it did quote were premiums about 1/3 of what the exchange actually showed for me, so I presume it is just defaulting to some young age like 28.

Everything needed to show your plans. Try it again.

The premiums for a 55-year old are a whole lot higher than for a 48-year-old, so it is completely bogus to use ranges.

Moreover, it doesn't even use that into. At 58, I cannot get a high-deductible policy from the exchange, but it still showed one. And I happen to know there are no platinum policies for me in the exchange, but it showed some anyway. The prices it showed for the policies (without subsidies) were all in the $400-700 range, but I know from looking at the actual exchange data, the un-subsidized policies I can actually get are all WAAAAAY over $1000/month.

So as I say, it is completely useless. Worse than useless. It presents completely erroneous info and will certainly confuse a lot of people.

I was only able to get into the actual exchange one time. I cannot get there tonight, even though it is after midnight. After entering my password, it just hangs at
https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/auth/userprofile

Three weeks into this debacle, it isn't getting substantially better. And now that the government shutdown is over, this is becoming the top story.

Lots of people scolded me for "exaggerating" these problems when I made my initial assessment that there were big, big problems as of Oct 3, and that there were so fundamental that they would not be fixed quickly. I will be happy to accept their apologies now.

Maybe you can do us a factual comparison showing discrepancies. I'll admit I'm wrong with a few examples of material discrepancies, and I'll start screaming about it.

I have only been able to get in there once. I printed off a summary and selected policies. I'm telling you they were ALL over $1000/mo, but when I use the "Learn" link and put in the age range, it comes out with coverage for 2 being in the range of $400-700/mo in every case. Those are prices that might be right for 35-year-olds, but not for somebody 20 years older.

And as I said, "Learn" displayed a high-deductible policy, which is invalid if over 30 years old. And it displayed a price range for Platinum plans, even though I know for certain there are no platinum plans in my area for my age.

I don't know haw to say this any more clearly. The data being display under "Learn" is completely bogus -- much worse than displaying nothing at all, because it will mislead and frustrate people.

It is not the same price. The policies are not priced in ranges.

from the "see plans now" features (which purports to tell you the plans and prices in your area without requiring a login.) As I pointed out above, it is completely bogus to use an age range because the products and prices are different for each year of age. So whose idea was it to include the date ranges in the first place? If I can identify that as a problem in my first 3 minutes on the system, why can't the people designing this system get that right?

So now they have removed the age ranges. That's good, because that was misleading. But now they have no age information at all, which is EVEN WORSE. What that means is that everybody will see the prices and plans available to a 26-year-old, and there is nothing anywhere on those pages that says "Oh by the way, if you aren't 26 years old, you can't get any of these prices. Check back in another 3 weeks and maybe we'll provide the correct information for your age -- or maybe we won't."

Last edited Sat Oct 19, 2013, 10:42 AM - Edit history (2)

1) the website mixes up my daughters and my wife's SSN each time
2) It wants to know how am I related - TO MYSELF .. not kidding ..
2) After I have complete and electronically signed the application - the website shows my application to be incomplete and ask me to fill out the forms again
3) However- if I check on a different page ( called application status) it shows my application is complete and provides a button to check eligibility results
4) when I click the button provided in 3) -- nothing happens-- ever .. I have tried it a million times
5) The chat option is a joke .. their standard answer is that there is too much traffic and that I should try later .. but DUH!! its functional issues with the website that is causing problems


If I was the project manager - I would be fired yesterday.

of that page where it displays the box to click to view eligibility results. I'll bet there is some info it needs to proceed. Click each step, see what happens.

Being one of those folks that is shut out of the ACA, I have no use for it.

I think there is plenty of time for the kinks to be worked out, and people to get signed up etc that there will be no lasting effects of the initial frustration with the roll out.

Wish they would remove the ap., approval and registration to another website. It should be very easy for ACA to match people with their yearly IRS filing! The IRS always knows where and who we are!

Let people surf the insurance prices and types of insurance like the site was before launch day.

After using the website, I found it mildly frustrating - but I don't feel it impeded my fucking ability one bit. I certainly wouldn't call it a fucking disaster.

Bryant

For me, it is a fucking disaster,

If I was from the dark side, that is exactly what I would do.

I got through after a few days, saw what I needed. I'll go back in a month or so to look more seriously. No rush to sign up right now.

create an account. The last day I spent few hours during which the site just kept kicking me back to the Log in page. Then, when I finally could stay logged in and tried to add info, it would seem to be saving the input, but after a few minutes would return an error.

Also, I called three times and each person I spoke to was inarticulate and a poor listener. Not really great attributes for a CS rep.

I finally got the account set up, but need a few days off before logging in again and actually trying to sign up for a plan. By the estimates I got previously on another site, though, it does look like I might end up with a very good deal.

By the way, not all of the site problems can be attributed to too much traffic. For instance, the create account info says:

In fact, the username must contain two of those three, not just one as the wording indicates.

It's a shame it was handled so poorly. It's not only frustrating for those trying to sign up, it gives the RW a relatively legit criticism.

Insurance won't take effect until January, and we have until December any how.