HealthCare.gov Review and Update on US Health Insurance

Last year I signed up for one of the new health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. I was hesitant but considering you have to pay a fee anyway if you do not have health insurance and the fact that it is just a good idea to be covered are a couple of reasons I decided to sign up for it.  I signed up for a plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield through the healthcare.gov website.  You can read the review of the sign up process and selecting a plan here.  

About a year into it now, overall I have been pleased with the program.  I was able to choose a new doctor close by and set up an appointment.  I had actually been putting it off until they encouraged me to set up an appointment that would be covered at no cost just by having the insurance.  The new doctor and office turned out to be just fine and I would go back again.  I did not even have to pay a co-pay for the appointment which was nice. 

During the first year, the cost per month was manageable but a bit higher than I would have preferred.  It is reduced depending on your income level.  For example if you make under a certain amount, you will qualify for a reduced rate each month.  This is tied into tax credits which we will go over next.

I was curious as to how it would effect the taxes this year.  When filing the taxes, they now have a section to enter in your payment information from the health insurance.  I had not started the insurance until May of last year so I actually did have to pay a fee for the earlier months in the year when I did not have the plan.  But for the remaining months when I was covered, I did receive a credit back which lowered the taxes. I was able to recalculate the health insurance for the new year to bring down the monthly cost a bit.

Overall the new health insurance through healthcare.gov has been pretty good and I would recommend it for anyone who is not covered yet.  They have a wide range of plans for pretty much any budget and they have many different companies to choose from.  Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or comments on the new health care.

Health Care Update - Deadline To Sign Up For Health Insurance

There has been a lot of discussion about the new health care program this year and with the deadline to sign up quickly approaching, there has been a bit of a rush to sign up.  I registered for the healthcare.gov website right when it launched but have waited until today to decide whether or not to sign up.  You can read about my experience using the website and reviewing the plans here.

After much contemplating I decided I better sign up for one of the health care plans.  As a self employed person, I do not have health insurance through an employer so this is the best option at the moment.  Now I still think the plans are not all that great.  There are some good plans available but they are very expensive.  However, with the cost of health care these days, it is a good idea to have some kind of protection even if it is unlikely you will actually need it.  Also the fact that you have to pay a fee if you don't sign up is a little extra incentive to pick a plan with the new system.

So after much review, I decided to go with one of the basic plans, a Bronze HMO plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield.  Normally I would prefer a PPO but in this case the comparable HMO had much better benefits for about the same cost where the PPO covers almost nothing until you pay all the deductible which is very high.  My current doctor is not in this plan so I will probably have to find a new doctor that is part of this group.

There is also an option to get dental insurance along with the health insurance.  I reviewed the plans and decided to skip the dental for now.  Adding up the monthly costs compared to the cost of just paying by cash for the same service, the self pay is a bit cheaper.  I take pretty good care of my teeth so I decided to hold off on the dental insurance.  It would be a good option if you do plan to have dental work done or if you have kids to cover for dental insurance.

So I officially applied for the new health care program.  So far I have not received a bill, but they say it needs to be paid by the start date which is May 1st this year.  This is all kind of an experiment and we will see how it turns out. 

HealthCare.gov Review and Errors

Like many Americans who are uninsured or looking for new health care coverage, I have been trying to go through the new health care market place system at HealthCare.gov.  This launched October 1st and is supposed to be the way to go to get the best and most affordable health care coverage.  According to news and reports many users are having trouble getting the website to work correctly.

I was able to sign up for an account and get all the way to the part where you apply for eligibility to get financial assistance.  It said my results were ready to view but every time I click the button to view them, it just brings up a blank page.  I tried all the solutions such as restarting, disabling pop up blockers and using different browsers.  Nothing worked and I am still getting the blank page.  I can't really move on in the process because you need to know your eligibility status before actually applying.

I contacted the support twice by chat and once by phone.  Neither method was able to provide a solution to fix the problem.  I even asked them on phone if they could tell me what my status was, but they were unable to do this. So now I think it is just a matter of waiting until they fix the bugs on the website.  News and reviews say they are working to make it better, so it may just be that we have to wait and try it again later.

UPDATE 12-13-13
They added the option to delete an application in progress and start over so I tried that and was able to get the results without an error this time.  Once you get the results it will tell you how much of a credit if any you can apply to your plan when you choose one.

It gives you several different companies to choose from as well as different level plans such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold.  I compared these plans to identical plans from the same companies directly from their website and they were the same cost. They give descriptions of the features of each but I still find it confusing and not clear exactly what the plans cover and what you will have to pay for your self.

I will probably sign up for one of the basic plans soon.  They say if you do not have health coverage in 2014 there is a fee of $95 per person that you have to pay.  That is not much compared to how much you will pay for the health insurance, but it is still better to have the insurance just in case. 

UPDATE 1-1-14
So I have been reviewing the plans available and none of them look very good.  For example, I'm looking for one that has a low premium and a higher deductible which is best for people who are healthy and don't expect many medical bills.  The cheapest plan is about $100 per month and that is after a discount.  This plan also has a $6000 deductible.  So that means with this plan, you have to pay about $7200 before it begins to even cover anything including a basic doctor visit.  That is just not worth it.  You would be better off just paying out of pocket.  As for now I am going to hold off on signing up until there are better options or lower costs.