Good to hear!

Argh!

"Do you currently have insurance?"

Yes

"Which of the following insurance plans do you have <list that does not contain the marketplace itself>"

Don't check anything; page will not submit.

*beats head against wall*

Yes, that's how I felt. The site wouldn't accept the (foreign) address of my "current health insurance", so I couldn't proceed....

Call your state's Help Line, or the federal one if your state doesn't have its own program--the Help Line finally worked for me.

I don't seem to be able to access the NY marketplace website at all from overseas. Anyone else had anything similar?

Yes!

My workplace decided to lower the employee contribution to practically nothing but if I want to add my daughter it will be $550 a month for the workplace plan. So we went to the colorado website.

Went through the website, answered all the dumb questions. Now it won't let her electronically sign saying her name isn't the same as the person named on the policy.

Daughter called the helpline on Thursday and was on hold for one hour and ten minutes before she hung up.

So as I don't get any credits or goodies from doing it through the state exchange I'm just going to sign her up directly with the insurance company.

Bah!

The ACA deadline for getting coverage Jan 1st, 2015 is Monday so it is a very busy time signing up people that typically wait until the last minute. On Tuesday, I suspect you'll get through quickly until the last few days prior to Jan 15th which will be the last signup date to get coverage starting Feb 1 and then the big rush will occur a few days prior to Feb 15th which is the close of open enrollment for coverage starting March 1.

We were able to sign her up directly with the insurance company yesterday so she does have coverage from Jan 1.

The other completely stupid thing that happened as a result of signing up on the state exchange was she got a mailed letter yesterday informing her that she picked email as her preferred communication method. So why mail the letter?

Additionally had we signed up on the state exchange she would need a pediatric dental insurance policy. Even adults have to have one.

Obamacare quirk makes childless people buy pediatric dental insurance - MarketWatch

However, all in all she was not denied coverage due to pre existing conditions.

Whether someone goes through the exchange or through a private insurer, neither can deny coverage due to a pre-existing condition and both have the same ACA coverage requirements.

Fraud prevention?

That's how insurance works. The pool of people signing up for insurance spreads the cost to make it affordable for all.

I'm aware of that. My point was, the Connect for Health Colorado website is not user friendly. However at least now nobody is denied coverage due to pre existing conditions. I realize the private company plans are the same as offered on the state website. However as the State website wouldn't allow us to sign up going private was the only choice given the fact they wouldn't pick ip the phone either.

What was really silly pre-ACA was that as long as a person didn't have more than a 60 day break in coverage, health insurance companies couldn't deny health insurance but they couldn't guarantee what they would cover and at what price when someone applied and only after the insurance company spent about 6 weeks going through a person's medical records would they then offer health insurance (normal coverage or risk pool coverage) and then tell them what was covered and at what price. If someone didn't take it, they probably couldn't get health insurance if they had a pre-existing condition since they would have exceeded the 60 day break in coverage due to the insurance company dragging their feet.

I'm not sure you read the article. I do know that people are covered for things they do not use. Much was made over gynecology costs passed over to men. However this is asking people to buy a separate policy for pediatric dental insurance that they can't use because they are adults. It isn't even connected to a dental policy. It's connected to health care coverage.

It would be like when being sold a policy to cover a car, being told to buy coverage for a motorcycle that you don't own.

You're probably right there

I think a better analogy would be buying car insurance and being told you have to buy third party coverage to insure people you don't even know and might never hit. How ridiculous is that!