<p>Thanks Calmom. I don’t qualify for a subsidy so anything I do will be off the exchange. So you don’t think it would be a problem to switch insurance companies between Jan 1 and March 31? What if I paid for the original policy before switching polices or insurance companies. Will I still be allowed to switch?</p>
<p>PS. Yes, I did get a letter from Blue Shield telling me I would be enrolled in the bronze plan for 2014.</p>
<p>Thanks, calmom. Network protocols I may be weak on, but I do know what a bit is and what a file is. I have a degree in Computer Science, and for fun I end up TAing Computer Science courses from Coursera.</p>
<p>Besides your design, calmom, the federal system also needs a shopping portion. People should be able to shop around and get price quotes without giving their info, other than ages, and income if they want to know about subsidies. This requires zero security. California has this in their exchange, but I’ve heard the federal exchange does not. (Did they do any user testing? Any at all?)</p>
<p>I don’t think there was time to do any testing, CF.</p>
<p>They did SOME testing. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have even bare functionality.</p>
<p>I guess there is no hurry to sign up now, especially when the subsidies might not be available in states that have not set up exchanges and are relying on the federal exchange (like North Carolina). Might as well wait for the next court decision.</p>
<p>[Court</a> could block Obamacare subsidies in 34 states - Diana Furchtgott-Roth - MarketWatch](<a href=“http://www.marketwatch.com/story/court-could-block-obamacare-subsidies-in-34-states-2013-10-25]Court”>Court could block Obamacare subsidies in 34 states - MarketWatch)</p>
<p>My healthcare plan choice is likely to be very different if there are no federal subsidies available in NC. I might even consider moving if health insurance becomes totally unaffordable.</p>
<p>Here is a list.</p>
<p>Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax. I like Oregon.</p>
<p><a href=“http://kff.org/health-reform/slide/state-decisions-for-creating-health-insurance-exchanges/[/url]”>http://kff.org/health-reform/slide/state-decisions-for-creating-health-insurance-exchanges/</a></p>
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Yes, but keep in mind that California only has to worry about the particular insurance companies it approved for the exchange, and California had a very early start relative to other states. You need the data to go in before you can provide a way to retrieve it. </p>
<p>The Healthcare.gov site did not open with the function that California calls “Shop and Compare” but they have added a similar, but less comprehensive, function now that you can access by clicking a “See Plans Now” link on the home page. It lists all the plans, but doesn’t include subsidy information and only provides representative rates – not specific age-based rates. So the rates really aren’t accurate - the only question they’ve asked is whether the applicant is under or over age 50. It would be better if the simply published the full range of premiums, lowest to highest, with a note that explained “Premium levels are based on age. This is the range of rates for applicants age 20-64.” Then the 60 year olds won’t get sticker shock later on.</p>
<p>I also think that the Healthcare.gov site should have installed a subsidy calculator like the Kaiser Foundation one, with a few more bells and whistles – but which also does not require a log in or submission of identifiable information. By bells and whistles – how about a subsidy calculator that give you a choice between quick entry (just estimate your household income) – or detailed entry that takes you through the process to calculate MAGI. And then it should come up with a better explanation of what the subsidy means-- so for example, it might give someone a little report that says:</p>
<p>“Based on your reported income figures and household size, you are guaranteed to be able to buy insurance coverage for $360 a month or less. If you opt to receive your maximum advance tax credit and choose the 2nd lowest cost Silver plan in your region, that will be the out-of-pocket premium cost for you and your family. You can also opt to apply your tax credit to a lower cost Silver or Bronze plan, and then your premium will be lower. You can choose to buy a more expensive Silver, Gold or Platinum plan, but your tax credit cannot be increased and those plans will cost you more.”</p>
<p>Really cool if there was also an option to print out or email the report. That’s very, very simple – it’s just basic math, it applies across the board (9.5% of $35,000 is the same result in New Jersey as it is in Arizona) – and it gives an iron-clad number to people who are likely to be eligible for subsidies. </p>
<p>The printout could be different, of course, for people whose income is too low or too high to qualify for subsidies.</p>
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<p>Yeah, that’s useless. I tried it, and it gave me some rosy-looking numbers that had nothing to do with the premiums I’d actually pay as 55+ consumer.</p>
<p>
Thats ok, when I try to explain technical stuff, I try to do it in a way that lurkers on this thread will understand, even if they have no understanding of the tech stuff. I’m not trying to patronize in my response – I just know that there are a lot more people reading this thread and not posting than the handful of us who are dominating the flow of discussion.</p>
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I think that if you buy from one company and switch to another within the open enrollment period, you will be able to do so simply by cancelling the first policy. I do NOT think that you will be able to switch plans offered by the same company – but as you are also concerned about premium costs and historically have had a high deductible, I’m guessing you are pretty much looking at the lowest cost Bronze plan each company has offers, but worried about which providers will end up in which network. </p>
<p>I’m in the exact same position as you are, except that I need to go on exchange because of the possibility of a tax credit or subsidy down the line. I’ve given up on Anthem – I don’t think that they are going to put out network info in anything near a timely basis. I think that I’ve gotten good answers from Blue Shield about their network – they are dropping all UC hospitals from their network but I’m not near a UC facility so I’m more concerned about whether or not a Sutter-owned facility is in network. My personal doctor is not showing up on either list, but its a tossup as to whether that’s an insurance company problem or a doctor-problem. (Doctor has a history of being slow on paperwork)</p>
<p>If I don’t have an answer by mid-November I’ll probably stick with Blue Shield. I think that once I pay the premium on the exchange that locks me in for the year, although since a change in financial status may be a circumstance justifying a switch outside the open-enrollment period, I probably would be able to finagle something if I wanted because I am self employed. (That is, I could always log into the system, report an increase in income that disqualifies me for a subsidy, and then say that I wanted to switch to the cheaper policy). </p>
<p>But that’s unlikely. If the problem for me in mid-November is that Anthem still hasn’t published its provider list, I probably will be thinking “screw Anthem”. I can always switch next year.</p>
<p>Calmom, yeah we may have to make this decision without fully knowing the provider networks for either company, although it sounds like Anthem is really lagging. I will probably select the bronze plan because the deductible is not all that different from what I have now. I doubt there will be a reason to switch plans within the same company, more probably wanting to go from one company to the other. I quess if I can do that until March 31, that will give me some time to figure out who is in what network. I think Anthem is providing a PPO network in my region ( as opposed to an EPO in most of the other regions) so that is something in favor of Anthem as far as I am concerned.</p>
<p>I checked the Blue Shield website and so far we have struck out. My wife’s internist and the doctor who does her mammograms/ultrasounds are not in the network nor is my internist or urologist. My wife has a slight heart problem and the cardiologist she has seen for the last 20 years is not there either. I am hoping that as you said it may just be a paperwork issue. I am probably going to have to start contacting these doctors to see what is going on.</p>
<p>Edit: In the worst case scenario, I guess I will be negotiating my rates with these doctors if they don’t join these provider networks. Maybe this will be the new reality?</p>
<p>GP, it also may be that some doctors aren’t really aware that a lot of their patients will be going to new insurance at the first of the year. It’s conceivable that they haven’t been following developments closely – so it might be worthwhile contacting the administrative staff for the specific doctors and let them know of your concerns. All of the media attention to ACA has focused on people who didn’t previously have insurance – so I can see the possibility that doctors might not have prioritized responding to communications from the insurance companies about the new plans. I know that my doctor will not accept new patients unless they are in the same family as existing patients – so I can see a busy practitioner assuming that there’s no particular hurry to sign up.</p>
<p>If you like your Dr. you can keep your Dr. was a pretty loud and clear message, so I would not be surprised at all if docs are also caught off guard by this chaos.</p>
<p>Post 2118 - It may be intended and planned but it is currently crashing during eligibility verification for everyone and so I have zero faith in its design. </p>
<p>What is the difference between Medicaid enrollment and healthcare.gov insurance enrollment? Based on reports, it sounds 90+% enrollees have been Medicaid enrollees while people like ML taking the regular route keep expending enormous amounts of energy with little success.</p>
<p>Medicaid is free. If it’s free people will take it. Paying, even subsidized paying, is a different ballgame. And in some states signing up for Medicaid is working nicely.</p>
<p>So they don’t go through exchanges but apply through systems that have existed for a while?</p>
<p>Well, it’s not the exchanges since those are for buying insurance. How exactly you get there I don’t know and you have to be below the poverty line. But I do think it’s easier. Of course, it’s gonna very state to state.</p>
<p>But I thought the news was reporting that people were signing up through the exchanges for Medicaid? In my state, they say 87 percent of those who have signed up via the exchanges have signed up for Medicaid. Perhaps it is imprecise reporting, or are people actually signing up for Medicaid through the exchanges?</p>