Can we share our questions, experience and info on the ACA here? My questions:

[hedgehog]

1. A lot of people have complained that they can't even look at the exchanges without signing up with a lot of personal data. Is this true everywhere?

2. Related question: Is everyone signing up on a Federal web page, or has each state designed its own? Are some states waaaay more intrusive in requiring personal information than others?

And a comment: I didn't think the ACA involved me since I've been on my husband's insurance. That may change - if my employer's crappy policy has come up to a new standard, I may have to buy my insurance there. Or - my husband's company may drop my coverage and refer me to the exchange. Nothing has happened yet, but it's something a lot of us may encounter. Absolutely no complaints here - my son will be getting his insurance January 1!

[apnu]

1. my expirence

I've been crushed by glitches and denial of service on the healthcare.gov site Since yesterday afternoon I've been seeing a page is too busy when I go there. This could mean a malicious denial of service attack and/or the site is legitimately flooded with users and the servers can't process them all. And when I did get in, I had a show stopping bug where It wanted me to pick security questions and answers but it wouldn't display those questions that I was supposed to answer. So I didn't finish the sign up process. I tried on three different browsers, IE, Firefox and Chrome -- all had the same result.

But what I did see, I can answer to.

1) The info is asked me in the sign up process was pretty tame. My name, basic stats (gender, age) and where I lived. But the truth is having a private plan now, I already have to give the insurance company that info and some minor medical history anyway. So it stands to reason that in order to use a government run exchange to shop for private insurance you'll have to supply the same info.

2) I went to healthcare.gov and it asked me what state I'm in. I'm in Illinois who's not set up a state exchange, so the site said I'd have to use the federal exchange and it guided me to the process of signing up, as in #1 above. I presume that if I were in Oregon, which has set up a state exchange it would redirect me to that site.

Though I have employer insurance I am going to set up an account and just poke around. Who knows? Maybe I'll save money on the marketplace, if not, well I keep what I have.


Edit: UPDATE!

I got into the site and can see the security questions now in Google Chrome. However no matter what questions I select and answers, it keeps telling me my questions and answers are "the same" and it blows me back to the sign up page, erasing all the data I've already entered

[hedgehog]

2. Thank you! I didn't know that it was a mixed bag - some states have their own sites

and some don't.

There are speculations that the New York State site is being attacked to keep people from logging on

http://nypost.com/2013/10/03/hackers-blamed-for-new-yorks-obamacare-site-breakdown/

I wonder if the Federal site is being attacked......

[apnu]

3. Maybe, maybe not. I can't say unless I can look at the server logs

Which, obviously, I'll never see. But when you put something like this out on the Internet, you're gonna get hackers. Especially now that hacking is politicized on a global scale. The Syrian Electronic Army, the Russian Business Network and Anonymous all have great motivations to hack healthcare.gov and the stat exchange sites, especially high profile,high population states like New York. I'm glad I don't work in those IT departments. *shudder*

I have a session now in another tab. Its responding very fast and nimbly. Even though I can't make an account because of this security question bug. But it doesn't seem like the Federal Site is being worn down by denial of service.

Here's the truth: the federal site is a bad implementation and it seems nobody tested it much before making it live. Its ridiculous to be honest.

[Chan790]

8. Maryland's site is a hot mess of bad code and poor design.

It's not ACA problems really, but whoever they contracted to set up and administer the operation of the website needs to be barred from bidding in future years. It's on par with my buggy HS (1997) website-design project coded in HTML 2.0 on GeoCities.) It's swamped but I went on and did my ACA coverage at 4am and the site was humming along. The problems are unrelated to that.

It was still just badly designed...it times out within 5 minutes so if you have to think about the information you need to put in (such as how much money you've made combined from all sources this year), you can expect to be kicked out of the system. Even if you save and continue after every page, it sometimes deletes your entire application. It took me 6 tries to figure out that they coded the phone number boxes wrong and I had to enter it as 301 123 1234567 (where my phone number is 301 123-4567, as an example)

I'd kill to have been able to use Healthcare.gov as it's at-least well-designed.

[hedgehog]

9. Would someone post a list of the info people need so they can have it ready when

they log on?

[Chan790]

10. What I needed:

(This may vary by state or on the Federal site. It's what I needed for MD.)

My contact information including my address, email, phone number.

Social Security #. Some people may be asked to verify their SS# or US citizenship by providing documents by mail or in person.

Last year's tax returns and income information for the current tax-year. (This is what hamstrung me. I spent half the year on UI before starting a small business by early-raiding my 401K. I have close to 20 sources of income between various 1099-forms and will be hiring a tax attorney who also processes returns for next year. My taxes and income are a mess; if it keeps me from an audit, it's money well-spent.)

Demographic information. The same type that you are not required to disclose on job applications. Here it's not optional. There's additional questions if you're a member of a recognized Native American tribe...they may be eligible for coverage through programs for Native Americans.

All the same information for any member of my household who would also be covered for insurance. (Spouse, dependents, etc.)

They asked me a series of questions to confirm my identity, such as: (these were things someone might have to look up but you can't really prepare for as you don't know what they're going to ask.)

*What was the name of my street when I lived in Annapolis, MD?
*What was the name of my dog I bought pet insurance for? (I don't have a dog. I live in a pet-free community. I'm assuming it was a mistake in the db.)
*two others I don't recall.

In addition, I had to set security questions if I lost my password.

It was the same information I typically need to file my taxes or register for any kind of government services...I kept feeling through the whole thing that if I had the option, I'd rather do it in person even if it took longer. That's an idea for the future...allow people to do their ACA stuff at the DMV or SSA or perhaps the county courthouse.

[hedgehog]

11. I've seen that series of weird questions before - an application for a student loan, maybe?

It was involved with a credit report check, IIRC.

[apnu]

4. UPDATE: I managed to finish the login process

But the site is making me wait in line in order to look about at the exchanges. I'm seeing a "We have a lot of visitors on the site right now. Please stay on this page." text and the page is auto-refreshing every 30 seconds or so.

[bigwillq]

5. I browsed on my state exchange

And had to put in just basic info to see the policies that I may qualify for. Not sure how much info is needed to actually complete the application.

To me, it was very simple.

I don't believe I will qualify for insurance through the exchange because my employer complies with the ACA standards.

[hedgehog]

6. Is your state run by Democrats?

[bigwillq]

7. Yes (nt)

[cbayer]

12. California experience

We have our own website (coveredca.com).

It's really easy to use and provides good information.

The calculator requires you to enter some information like your income, dependents, location (zip code) but nothing that would identify you.

It then gives you your probably plan options - companies, levels of coverage, costs and subsidies.

Then it asks if you would like to be contacted. It's give you multiple options for this and only then do you enter any identifying information (email, address or phone number).