It's a coding error. It shouldn't reject a user name like John@44 but accept JOHN44.

But thanks for the tip.

do with the rest of the name.

Makes me wonder who is responsible for this mess. Did anyone realize how poorly this company was performing? HHS should have caught it too.

Haven't seen any PSA's on television for the ACA either.

when calling out the Admin on how people do not understand ACA. Couldn't find any rules about the use of PSA's that would disallow it for ACA. It is the law of the land - what better vehicle than an ACA in the middle of the top TV shows !

This is a valid name, for example
John-Jones1

and this is not
juohn-jones1

As I understand it, you must have at least one upper case and one lower case letter. The name must include a numeric digit and it must include one of the symbol characters.

the way it really works. I have tested it and tried the combinations.

What you write IS the way I originally interpreted it - BUT it is not correct.

Your last sentence is very common in the world of user name creation but it is not AND for upper/lower but OR and not both. Same for number and symbol

This is very definitely a valid constriction at Healthcare.gov:

John-Jones1

That is valid if it is not already used by another user. It has a symbol, a numeric digit and a mixture of upper and lower case. That is the requirement, and there is nothing at all unusual about these rules. I believe those are the same rules required by the payment card industry for their PCI compliance testing.

Just tested the following:

1. Cap and lower, a symbol and a number - Your John-Jones1 - IT TOOK IT

2. BUT...When I added a second symbol to it Cap and lower, two symbols and a number, John-Jones#1 - IT DECLINED IT

To discount the affect of someone already using the user name, (Although I haven't seen a message to say that) I came up with a ludicrous name - Barack Cruz


1. Barack-Cruz#1 - DECLINED - Two caps, two symbols

2. barackcruz1 - ACCEPTED - No caps, lowers, one number

3. BarackCruz# -DECLINED - Two caps, lowers, one symbol

4. barackcruz - DECLINED - No caps, no numbers, no symbols

5. Barackcruz# - DECLINED - One cap, one symbol

6. Barackcruz## - DECLINED - One cap, two symbols

The username is case sensitive. Choose a username that is 6-74 characters long and must contain a lowercase or capital letter, a number, or one of these symbols _.@/-

I don't think I've ever seen that instruction for usernames.

You most certainly can have a mixture of upper and lower case. Indeed, I think you MUST have at least one of each.

I finally got through by using my 3 initials (all-lower case) followed by my 4-digit birth year.

But yeah, its annoying as hell that it makes you enter all that info in again once it tells you invalid username. You think it would provide instant feedback immediately upon populating the username field like most online e-mail services do it.

Not make you proceed two whole pages before telling you to start all over.

What a clusterf*ck this is.

that is very strange requirement for user names. I'm on medicare, but will kick for those going on ACA.

These are virtually the same requirements mandated by the PCI compliance process, and widely recommended throughout the IT industry these days.

Mixed case is allowed and the names are case sensitive. A numeric digit is required, and a special character is required. Nothing at all unusual about that.

Mixed case NOT allowed (all lower or all upper case) and either a numeric digit OR special character but not both. I haven't seen requirements quite that strict before.

My id has mixed case, a hyphen and a number.

Not because it has a mixture of upper and lower case.

Mixed case is very definitely allowed, and actually may even be required. I did not try any names without mixed case.

I absolutely do not want to say anything incorrect here - it's a precise science. It's looking like it won't take two symbols, for sure. This is totally not typical in my experience. Is it to you?

And it is

Aaaaa-Aaaa1

Where the "A" and "a" are alpha characters, upper and lower case respectively.

We are going to be this nit-picky? A typo that might slow someone down for a whole minute.... God I miss un-rec.

was to try and help in any way possible to improve the thing so more people will sign up.

God I miss the "waste of time button"

and this is a bizarre requirement. Standard procedure for user names is for them to be case-insensitive. In most places, the only requirement for a user name is that it not already exist in the system, and that it meet a minimum length requirement.

PASSWORDS, on the other hand, generally require a mix of case, plus at least one number, plus at least one "symbol".

Making it this difficult to get past the front door is absurd.

And whoever wrote those so-called "instructions" needs to be rapped across the knuckles several times by Sister Mary Elephant and have their "World of Warcraft" userid revoked.

I am using Motownjohnny1 and it seems to work.


I gave up after a couple days, since I am already insured and have until December 15th to deal with this anyways, but I was able to log on.

There are only certain symbols you can use. I was trying # and anytime I used that, it disallowed it. Never saw a stipulation on symbols before.

I certainly think a couple "hints" would be in order...since it's so crazy. took us a while to finally figure it out and I'm in IT !

So, bottom line:

At least 6 characters
Must have at least one letter (doesn't matter if it's a cap or a lower case or combo of both)
Must have a number or a symbol. BUT, the symbol MUST be one listed

yes, john22 is valid now - but wasn't earlier today. no clue

at was cool and funny.

I don't really care about him much one way or the other, but I am defiantly Not a fan.