When you sign up for health insurance online before the current deadline of March 31, 2014, allow yourself a lot of time. Plan with patience. The final results are worth the process.
The official Obamacare sign-up website, www.healthcare.gov/marketplace, may be working but it is not easy to use. See also the Department of Health and Human Services informational site at http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/index.html. User-friendly and the website do not usually appear in the same sentence. Based on experience, they shouldn't.
I am an Obamacare sign-up success story. I found a health insurance policy with a much less expensive premium and comparable coverage. However, it took patience. And time. Days in fact. And the help of my wife.
But we got it done because we planned for it in advance.
And we went beyond the labels onsite. These labels do not describe the policies and plans offered at www.healthcare.gov/marketplace, the Federal health insurance exchange:
- Select.
- Preferred.
- Exclusive.
- Enhanced.
- Essential.
- Essential Plus.
- Prime.
- Ultimate.
- Deluxe.
These plans are further broken down onsite into metal brackets ("March Madness of Health Insurance"?):
- Bronze.
- Silver.
- Gold.
- Platinum.
Some descriptions of these catch-phrases cannot be improved upon, such as "downright deceptive," "marketing gibberish," and "confusing and hard to navigate." (Robert Pear, "Names of Health Plans Sow Customer Confusion" p. 17, col. 1 (New York Times Nat'l ed., Sunday, March 23, 2014, quoting, respectively, Betsy M. Imholz, Esquire of Consumers Union; Mr. Hubert B. Gesenhues of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Jon R. Urbanek, Senior Vice President at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida).
To say again at the end what I said at the beginning, when you sign up for health insurance allow yourself a lot of time. Plan with patience in mind. Trust, but verify, as they say.
The results are sure worth it.
© 2014 by Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved. No claim to original U.S. Government works.
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