Sunday, November 24, 2013

USA Today: No HealthCare.gov? No problem, private sites say



No HealthCare.gov? No problem, private sites say

 http://tinyurl.com/usatodaynohealthcaregov

The sites mentioned here are useful, especially given the problems that the federal exchange is having and some states. However, Steve Morse's site is far more complete as it has info on premiums, subsidies, plan quality ratings, and plan doctors. His site has been endorsed by Zeke Emanuel a key architect of the Affordable Care Act. See my article http://tinyurl.com/hra112113insurersenroll With Insurers able to enroll, plan comparisons are essential. 

 

4 comments:

  1. Steve Morse's site is good for comparing plans but also has several commonly found errors.
    You can't just double the premium cost for one person and assume it will be accurate for 2 people- the price goes up for every year of age- so you have to enter each individual's age and then add the prices together.
    He also has a common error in his subsidy calculator for Alaska. In Alaska the poverty level is 25% higher so we can receive premium subsidies despite having a higher income level than the rest of the US. This same mistake kept Alaskans from receiving an accurate eligibilty notice from Healthcare.gov and caused Navigators and brokers to just stop applying for coverage for their clients for 6 weeks.
    I got caught by this glitch and now am in a paper based Appeal process which will take forever by snail mail.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Will, thanks for the feedback. I will share with Morse.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Will, If you have any other corrections, etc, we would greatly appreciate it so we can fix all problems. Please email me at thausner@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tony,
    I've had some very interesting email conversations with Steve Morse and now realize that he was entirely correct on his website about how to combine the premium amounts for two people. That was entirely my mistake.
    I was very impressed with how quickly he corrected his calculator to reflect that Alaska and Hawaii have higher income limits for eligibility for premium subsidies.
    I am still trying to enroll in a plan through Healthcare.gov and see that that site continues to list the income limits for those able to receive premium subsidies incorrectly. I just hope that the actual subsidy eligibility notice which I received from Healthcare.gov is correct because it really looks too good to be true.

    ReplyDelete