ACA Signup Pain on healthcare.gov

[street]

One of the instructions that they ask for is a written but short explanation if a change or to explain your case. Do you know if they want this in hand writing or can it be typed?

Thanks

[bobandsherry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by street One of the instructions that they ask for is a written but short explanation if a change or to explain your case. Do you know if they want this in hand writing or can it be typed? Thanks

Anyway you wish to do, just as long as it's signed

[UnrealizedPotential]

Quote:

Originally Posted by street One of the instructions that they ask for is a written but short explanation if a change or to explain your case. Do you know if they want this in hand writing or can it be typed? Thanks

I wrote a letter giving a very detailed explanation of my expected income. I put above my signature, I certify the above is true under penalty of perjury. I signed it. 8 days later they said they verified everything I said.

[bobandsherry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential I wrote a letter giving a very detailed explanation of my expected income. I put above my signature, I certify the above is true under penalty of perjury. I signed it. 8 days later they said they verified everything I said.

I didn't get that formal. In my letter for last year, typed in Word, I simply stated the details. I noted that my expected income is from the following sources; dividends on investments, distribution from 401K and and resulting capital gains derived from investments. My estimated income is $x for 2017. I also noted this was significantly different from prior year income due to retirement. I then simply signed it, no certification or other affirmation. Letter was processed and accepted within a week of mailing. Just be sure to include the date in your letter.

[Spock]

My signup went smooth almost 2 weeks ago. The only malfunction is I get emails and phone calls saying I still have to submit my application... making me wonder if I forgot to click something.
So I called the 1-800 number to check the status of my 2018 enrollment... maybe a 2 minute wait... rep said I was done and done for 2018. (though I got another enrollment reminder just this morning... oh well.. it is the US Gov after all.)

[easysurfer]

I enrolled today. Only thing left is paying the 1st month premium before 1/1/2018. Didn't find a straight forward way to pay online so will wait until the insurance company contacts me for the shakedown .

[Sue J]

We enrolled last Friday and it went smoothly. Last year we could pay online immediately but our insurer didn't offer that this year so I'll just wait for the bill in the mail.

[socca]

I logged into healthcare.gov a couple of weeks ago just to find out the range of MAGIs for which the Affordable Care Act is delivering unaffordable HI premiums for a single person in my county in 2018 according to the ACA's own definition of 'affordability'. The range is impressive: from ~$48k to ~$80k. How often do you hear about this in the media?

Unfortunately, yesterday I received a phone call from healthcare.gov urging me to complete my application, which of course I have no intention of doing. The message on my answering machine said that I could call some number to stop the nagging, which reminds me of the many spam emails I receive where I can click a link to 'unsubscribe', which of course I never do.

It remains to be seen whether I will be automatically enrolled in a plan against my wishes like last year. If so, then I will get to enjoy 6 months of aggravation as BCBS of FL demands that I pay the premiums for a plan that I never even willingly enrolled in.

[zinger1457]

Quote:

Originally Posted by socca I logged into healthcare.gov a couple of weeks ago just to find out the range of MAGIs for which the Affordable Care Act is delivering unaffordable HI premiums for a single person in my county in 2018 according to the ACA's own definition of 'affordability'. The range is impressive: from ~$48k to ~$80k. How often do you hear about this in the media?

Not sure what your point is but the high cost of healthcare is discussed in the media all the time. Anyone can go to the web site and preview plans and costs, you don't need to login to do that.

[candrew]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobandsherry I didn't get that formal. In my letter for last year, typed in Word, I simply stated the details. I noted that my expected income is from the following sources; dividends on investments, distribution from 401K and and resulting capital gains derived from investments. My estimated income is $x for 2017. I also noted this was significantly different from prior year income due to retirement. I then simply signed it, no certification or other affirmation. Letter was processed and accepted within a week of mailing. Just be sure to include the date in your letter.

+1

[BladeS.]

New to the forum and found this thread of particular interest since I am currently in the midst of attempting to transition my family and I out of my former employer's Cobra plan and onto the ACA starting in Jan 2018. Expecting a big AGI drop in 2018 as I transition into my new life away from my former Mega Corp. comp package into a life of dividends and interest. I'm waiting to see how that goes once they complete my application which was finally successfully submitted online yesterday. Good to see others have had success submitting written letters explaining income variances when questioned!

Want to share one very annoying thing that occurred during the online application process that may help others. Once you've successfully setup your .Gov login and PW, and confirmed it via the confirmation email they send, you begin the application process by fully confirming you are who you claim to be. SS#, birthday, etc... The system would never let me pass this initial step even though my info was valid and correct. It kept stating it couldn't find me and my verification had failed. I called the ACA service phone line and they walked me through it only to have it fail again. Once you fail the online verification process multiple times you receive a screen with a unique code and instructions to contact Experian for further assistance. The ACA agent was nice enough to stay on the line and conference Experian into our call so we could all try it together. As we were waiting to speak with an Experian agent it suddenly occurred to me that I had frozen my credit reports through all three major agencies, including Experian, a few weeks back once news of the big Equifax hack was made public. The Experian agent came on the line and took his shot and failed as well verifying my info. When I asked about my credit freeze with them he finally admitted that was indeed what was stopping me from verifying my identity on the ACA website.

The ACA agent then advised me on how to submit online proof docs through their site (in this case a photo of my drivers license..) which finally allowed me to successfully complete the online application process. I will now wait 7 to 10 days to find out if they have any further issues with this identity challenge or not. I imagine my drivers license will work but we shall see.

Still baffles me how a government run agency chooses to utilize an outside credit reporting agency when they should have full access to IRS records! (which they will view later anyway to confirm income eligibility next year..) I had to pay Experian to freeze my credit reports when Equifax was hacked even though I never asked them to gather and store that info for me in the first place but that's a topic for another time.

Thought I'd throw this info into the mix in case anyone else chose to freeze their Experian reporting and run into this online ACA identity confirmation issue.

[Sue J]

I remember going through the identity verification the first year of ACA. I don't think you will have to go through it again. Next year you will go into your account and update your info if there are any changes.

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobandsherry Not sure why you don't have the option. I had to make a life change and worked just as I described. Sorry not working for you.

Yeah, It's a mystery to me why I don't have the option.

I just went back and start at the beginning, like I've done several times, and under the "Family and Household", my daughter is there. No option to remove her. And nothing earlier or later in the process lets me delete her. But my separate account worked, so I'm good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BladeS. As we were waiting to speak with an Experian agent it suddenly occurred to me that I had frozen my credit reports through all three major agencies, including Experian, a few weeks back once news of the big Equifax hack was made public. The Experian agent came on the line and took his shot and failed as well verifying my info. When I asked about my credit freeze with them he finally admitted that was indeed what was stopping me from verifying my identity on the ACA website.

That probably was what was wrong with my online validation, although I've seen the mortgage, car loans, past addresses kinds of questions work at various times in the past, even though my credit is frozen. My credit has been frozen for a decade. Even the annualcreditreport.com site asks those questions, and it works.

[Rianne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BladeS. New to the forum and found this thread of particular interest since I am currently in the midst of attempting to transition my family and I out of my former employer's Cobra plan and onto the ACA starting in Jan 2018. Expecting a big AGI drop in 2018 as I transition into my new life away from my former Mega Corp. comp package into a life of dividends and interest. I'm waiting to see how that goes once they complete my application which was finally successfully submitted online yesterday. Good to see others have had success submitting written letters explaining income variances when questioned! Want to share one very annoying thing that occurred during the online application process that may help others. Once you've successfully setup your .Gov login and PW, and confirmed it via the confirmation email they send, you begin the application process by fully confirming you are who you claim to be. SS#, birthday, etc... The system would never let me pass this initial step even though my info was valid and correct. It kept stating it couldn't find me and my verification had failed. I called the ACA service phone line and they walked me through it only to have it fail again. Once you fail the online verification process multiple times you receive a screen with a unique code and instructions to contact Experian for further assistance. The ACA agent was nice enough to stay on the line and conference Experian into our call so we could all try it together. As we were waiting to speak with an Experian agent it suddenly occurred to me that I had frozen my credit reports through all three major agencies, including Experian, a few weeks back once news of the big Equifax hack was made public. The Experian agent came on the line and took his shot and failed as well verifying my info. When I asked about my credit freeze with them he finally admitted that was indeed what was stopping me from verifying my identity on the ACA website. The ACA agent then advised me on how to submit online proof docs through their site (in this case a photo of my drivers license..) which finally allowed me to successfully complete the online application process. I will now wait 7 to 10 days to find out if they have any further issues with this identity challenge or not. I imagine my drivers license will work but we shall see. Still baffles me how a government run agency chooses to utilize an outside credit reporting agency when they should have full access to IRS records! (which they will view later anyway to confirm income eligibility next year..) I had to pay Experian to freeze my credit reports when Equifax was hacked even though I never asked them to gather and store that info for me in the first place but that's a topic for another time. Thought I'd throw this info into the mix in case anyone else chose to freeze their Experian reporting and run into this online ACA identity confirmation issue.

I jumped through multiple hoops signing up in 2014. I now know how the system works but decided to hire a broker this year, paid by our HI company. We are going with an HSA high deductible plan. Brokers know the minutia of every policy, where your dollars go, and how to quickly get through the system and get you signed on. It took @ an hour for us. We also went with automatic withdraw, you do not want to miss the January 1 payment! Or any other payment as you'll get booted.

I do not recall any questions regarding credit or credit reports. The only snag was proving our income as DH has a LLC part time. Sending paper proof was the best method as uploading never seemed to reach the right person. You have to put your ID #'s on every page of income proof. Never group your pages and assume they keep them together.

[RetireAge50]

Just signed up for the first time. Went smooth. Son signed up separately. His was smooth also but he had to call to get past the identity verification. Very nice person who waited on the phone for us to upload his drivers license.

Less then $13 combined for the 3 of us. Nice!!