How are state ACA doing?

[Buckeye]

For people accessing a state-developed ACA website, are you seeing better performance than we are seeing at healthcare.gov?

If you are accessing a state-run website, that means you don't have to go to healthcare.gov but I'm sure you've heard about the problems!

 

[kmt1972]

I do not need it, but I did check out the NY site. It is a disaster. As of a day ago it is still not working. Not surprising. NY state is the worst in the USA when it comes to counting votes and the MTA is a notorious black hole that sucks in resources. If the same gang of people are running the website the result is quite understandable.

 

[Sarah S]

Massachusetts also has been pretty buggy. Each step of the way got bogged down by pages not loading unable to create account telling me my address was wrong then insisting I am incarcerated( never have been). Finally submitted application said I would hear in a few weeks. Will see what happens then. Still can not see the insurance choices except as a browser. Don't know how the browser list which is all insurances on exchange varies from subsidy choices if at all

 

[modhatter]

I am in Nevada (State run) , and could not get through on Oct. 1. Could not even get web site up. However, at 2:30 AM on Oct 2nd, I could at least look at available plans and details. Did not try and apply as of yet, so can't say how that process is working.

What I wonder in looking at Federally run states vs. State run programs, is if the coverage would differ between the two. Also, the solvency of each. I read some articles about some States blowing their Federally allotted budgets and having to foot the bill for the remaining money needed to run the exchanges.

It seems a little safer to be in a Federally controlled state, but of course I could be wrong. [Mod Edit]

 

[scrabbler1]

The NY State website was running very slowly Friday but on Saturday it was running much more quickly, as the wait times for advancing through the screens were nearly instant and I got thrown out of the website only once. I had some other issues relating to a subsidy question I had trouble answering but have since been able to sign up for an individual plan.

 

[frank]

anyone know anything about iowa? state or federal run? what website to go to to sign up? I have to do it but was hoping someone from iowa would chime in and help me out. the problem I have is that I am on medicare and wife is not , so who has to sign up me or her? who's id needs to be sent in? etc. I don't want to screw up on the ap process because I imagine withdrawing an ap is going to be a nightmare. thanks

frank

 

[Buckeye]

anyone know anything about iowa? state or federal run? what website to go to to sign up? I have to do it but was hoping someone from iowa would chime in and help me out. the problem I have is that I am on medicare and wife is not , so who has to sign up me or her? who's id needs to be sent in? etc. I don't want to screw up on the ap process because I imagine withdrawing an ap is going to be a nightmare. thanks

frank

You are out of the picture because you are on Medicare. With respect to qualifying for the subsidy, your family income is used to determine whether she qualifies. She is the only one making an application for health insurance.

Iowa is not on the list of states on the healthcare.gov website so I guess it is state run.

 

[donheff]

DC's site appears to be slow but working. I have only browsed plans, not enrolled since I have affordable coverage. The Virginia site (my other potential state) is run by the Federal government. It still appears to be a mess this morning but I only took a quick look since I don't want my login attempts to be part of the problem. Based on the magnitude of the problems I would expect it will take quite a while to get things working.

 

[tinlizzy]

anyone know anything about iowa? state or federal run? what website to go to to sign up?

Iowa is partnered with the federal. https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/individual/#state=iowa

I see there is a phone number to enroll because the webpage is busy. I have insurance thru work so I haven't investigated it further.

 

[anethum]

The Washington Post had an article which was highly critical of Maryland's ACA website. The article compared Maryland's website unfavorably with those of Connecticut and Kentucky, whose websites appeared to be performing much better.

Maryland’s health insurance Web site stumbles badly in first days - The Washington Post

 

[footenote]

MNSure (Minnesota) had some initial bugs which they have fixed, and there are pending bugs they have identified and are working on. I have had no problems researching plans, but have not created an account yet.

 

[kmt1972]

I actually managed to log into NY state website. I tried to sign up just to look at the prices of the various insurance plans. But when I entered my name, SS+, and birthday, the system claim that they cannot validate me. I guess I am persona non grata as far as the NY state government is concerned. More likely the database/service they use to check this info have a bug. Too bad this does not translate into me getting out of paying NY state taxes since in theory I do not exist.

 

[scrabbler1]

I actually managed to log into NY state website. I tried to sign up just to look at the prices of the various insurance plans. But when I entered my name, SS+, and birthday, the system claim that they cannot validate me. I guess I am persona non grata as far as the NY state government is concerned. More likely the database/service they use to check this info have a bug. Too bad this does not translate into me getting out of paying NY state taxes since in theory I do not exist.

I had gotten an ID and password about 5 years ago through the NYS tax website, and that was what I used to sign into the health exchange website. Maybe you can try to get an ID and password through there like I did? I do not recall it being difficult to gets one although it is a bit different from my other screen names because my preferred choices (several of them) were in use.

 

[clifp]

I just checked out the Hawaii site again. Still no info on pricing or availability of any plans. However they have made progress they PDF form they use to submit an application (same as the Federal exchanges) you can actually type into the fields now instead of printing it out and filling it in by hand and then mailing!