Comment by nknighthb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nknighthb | Hacker News Reader

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As of January 1st, I'm on a non-exchange plan that I'm only able to get because of the ACA (I was previously uninsurable on the individual market due to preexisting conditions). I'm off-exchange because the best plan for my particular situation isn't offered on the exchange on my county, and I wouldn't be eligible for a subsidy anyway. (You do know that if you really don't want medicaid and can afford the premiums, you could just go to an insurer off-exchange, right?)

I have family with limited income who went through the quick signup process on Washington's exchange site and got put on Medicaid. Card and related information showed up soon thereafter. No big deal.

Seems like you've got some sort of mental block. Your comments haven't mentioned any practical problem, yet you seem unable to get past some unstated obstacle.

It might be just my situation. I had private plan before ACA. When exchanges opened I spent half a day filling out forms to see if I can get anything better than my private plan. Because of no income, they did not allow me to even check what price from exchange would be, they just said that we'd get Medicaid. Since we never got any information on how to get it (I am in Texas), I assumed I need to go through whole form filling again. That's where I resigned and decided to stay away from exchanges.

So it looks like just my special circumstances.

Try out HealthSherpa[0]. It shows plans available by location instead of income.

[0] https://www.healthsherpa.com/

"they did not allow me to even check what price from exchange would be"

Go to http://healthcare.gov and click the big link that says "See plans before I buy". Answer some questions, and it will guide you through. (This workflow is anonymous and does not require creating an account and logging in.) More importantly, though, when you see a question that asks "Is employer coverage available to anyone in this household?", look right above for a link that says: "No thanks, just show me plans in my area. I can find out later about help paying for coverage." You'll then see all the plans.

[side-note: I was a member of the "Tech Surge" team that helped fix the website in late 2013.]

You were living off savings, right? Couldn't you just lie and claim you had some small amount of income? It wouldn't even really have to be a lie -- just a projection of future business income.

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