Washington Healthplanfinder announced yesterday that more than 55,000 residents have enrolled ObamaCare health coverage known as the Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum plans, and Catastrophic and Medicaid coverage.

However this last week has had issues due to outages on the federal level. These outages stopped WA Healthplanfinder from determining eligibility. For help learning if you are eligible for subsidies call 800-930-7956 or contact Medicoverage.

By Ray Wilson+

ObamaCare enrollment numbers down this week due to outages at the Federal Data Services Hub. This system is managed by the federal government and allows state-based markets to verify enrollee’s identity and subsidy eligibility. Therefore states were not able to give accurate figures to persons trying to enroll.

This information was sent out by Washington Healthplanfinder, Washington State’s online health insurance marketplace, however this impacted all state-based markets. According to their email the issue is currently resolved for the Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans.

By Katie Banks+

Per a Washington Healthplanfinder email, over 8,000 applicants were offered higher tax credits than should have been allowed based off their income and members of their household for the new Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans.

WA Website Glitch

From the email released by Washington Healthplanfinder, “Working with the federal government, our IT team traced the issue to inconsistent file formats being shared between Washington Healthplanfinder and the Federal Data Services Hub.The investigation revealed that the two systems were using different parameters to establish estimated household income. As a result, some Washington Healthplanfinder applicants did not receive the correct tax credit information related to their premiums.”

WA Residents Who are Affected by the Under-Quote

This problem, according to the email, only affects those who qualify for subsidies. The WA Healthplanfinder assures that this does not affect those that are buying plans that do not qualify for premium subsidies or cost-sharing subsidies, and it doesn’t affect the 40,000 Medicaid eligible applicants.

Washington State Late Enrollment

Most U.S. residents can apply for a plan until Dec 15th for a Jan 1st start date, but Washington State allows its residents to apply until December 23rd for the first of the year start date.

Wait to Enroll in ACA Plans

Even though, Washington claims that this problem was fixed as of October 23rd, we suggest waiting to enroll in any plan until glitches in all the exchanges are repaired. As the federal website also is under-quoting premiums, but in fed’s case, it affects applicants regardless if they qualified for subsidies. Remember an agent is able to help you enroll in any of the ACA plans and they will be able to help you understand how all the plans work. To learn more call 800-930-7956 or contact Medicoverage.

By Katie Banks+

Washington State has extended its deadline for ObamaCare plans to December 23, 2013. If Washingtonians enroll by this date they will have a start date of January 1, 2014. This is news because according to all other sources the deadline is December 15, 2013 to begin on the first day of the new year. We have reached out to our contact at Washington Healthplanfinder to help us learn if this date is specific to their state only.

Washington ACA Plans

Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Affordable Care Act plans are available throughout the state of Washington. As well as federal premium subsidies and cost-sharing subsidies are available to those who qualify.

For your specific premium rate or to learn if you qualify for subsidies call 800-930-7956 or contact Medicoverage.

By Ray Wilson+

Washington HealthPlanFinder released a press release that their Exchange site is down in order to fix an issue with the system. People are shopping online today for the much awaited ACA plans: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

A statement from the WA Health Finder: “During the launch, we became aware that some users were experiencing slow loading times or difficulty completing their application. While this is not affecting all users, we want to investigate the root cause for why this is happening and will be placing the site in maintenance mode in order to identify and correct these issues. We expect to have an update soon.”

WA System Down: No Big Deal

Why do we say that it is no big deal? Well, today is opening day for the Exchanges but you have until December 15th to sign up for a plan with a start date of January 1, 2014. As well as agents, like the team at Medicoverage, are able to answer your questions. So, no need to panic that the system has a glitch, it was to be expected with so many people going to the page today.

UPDATE: Washington Healthplanfinder just emailed stating that their site is back up but experiencing some difficulties. From the press release, “Please note that some users may still experience intermittent issues completing online applications. We encourage all applicants to save their information and return to wahealthplanfinder.org should such a situation arise. At 8:00 p.m., the marketplace may be temporarily unavailable as we conduct additional maintenance to improve the current experience.”

For further questions call 800-930-7956 or contact Medicoverage for agent help.

By Amy De Vore+

The Affordable Care Act helps the uninsured in a few ways. For instance, in the LA Times today there was an article about a woman making $12.68 an hour, mother of one child, lives in Los Angeles, and recently choose to forego surgery because she was uninsured. As of January 1st this woman would have options for health coverage.

How the Affordable Care Act Helps Uninsured

She isn’t qualified for Medicaid, however since she works she may qualify for job-based insurance as 2015. Until then and if her employer doesn’t offer insurance she would qualify for premium subsidies and cost-sharing subsidies, and her daughter would qualify for Medi-Cal.

Costs for Lower-Income Families

The article doesn’t state how old she is, but if she is 30, her Silver plan premium could be as low as $93 a month and her deductible would be reduced from $2000 to $500, and a reduced maximum out of pocket from $6,350 to $2,250. This would apply to any single parent to one child living in the Los Angeles area, making her salary.

How do Lower-Income Families and Individuals Get Insurance?

First, it’s important to remember for anyone purchasing a plan from the Health Insurance Marketplace you need your W2 paperwork and financial information handy like child support, alimony, assets. Then you can either go directly through your state’s newly established call center’s navigators or you can go through your insurance agent. Many don’t realize that agents can help with on and off-Exchange plans.

Lower Income Seniors

Seniors do not have to do anything as of January 1st. Seniors stay on Medicare and do not apply for the new metal plans. Make sure your friends and parents are aware that there is nothing for them to do, because states are vocally expressing their concerns about seniors being tricked by scammers into giving away personal information due to the lack of awareness in regards to the ACA.

To learn if you qualify for a subsidy call 800-930-7956 or contact Medicoverage.