Wow, healthcare.gov just worked beautifully

[Shivering Jemmy]

No wait, instant account creation, workflow to completion...

Anyone else having good luck today?

[DebJ]

1. No. Can't even get a logon. Trying for over four hours now.

Tried yesterday also.

[Shivering Jemmy]

2. odd. I can log in and out with ease.

wonder why the differential.

[DebJ]

4. Pennsylvania is a cursed place to live. n/t

[Shivering Jemmy]

5. I'm in Philly!

[Shivering Jemmy]

3. You know what I think made the difference for me

I'm on a different machine now.

I wonder if there is a cache clearing issue.

[DebJ]

10. So maybe I should restart my computer?? n/t

[Shivering Jemmy]

12. clear the cache at least

maybe that will help.

[DebJ]

13. Thanks.

[bluestate10]

32. Some application software doesn't talk to other application software.

When that happens functional choices freeze up. Call your Internet service provider's help line and explain that you are having problems accessing the Healthcare.gov site and have communicated with people that have no issues. It is possible that other customers have called them, so there may be a solution that they can provide you with.

If not, find out from Jenny whether she uses a FIOS, Cable Modem, DSL or T1 Internet service supplier and find a family member or trusted friend whose machine runs on the same pipe as Jenny uses, then use that person's computer to log onto Healthcare.gov and sign up.

The HHS should have anticipated problems and built simulators into their site that would accept input from various Internet service providers without causing function freeze up.

[RebelOne]

45. Yes, believe me, restarting your computer solves a lot of problems. n/t

[BluegrassStateBlues]

6. Any small issues are being yelled about through megaphones.

It's like these people have never used a computer before.

It has gone on with fewer bugs than SimCity, iOS 7 and GTA V combined.

[kestrel91316]

20. I have been using computers for 15 years. I know how to clear my browser cache. That's the first

thing I did when I had problems. I still cannot get logged in. I got registered (took 2 days of trying) but now have been stuck where I am for nearly a week.

I don't know if the CoveredCA portal that you get to from the healthcare.gov site is even the same website or software as healthcare.gov. It does have a separate URL.

[PoliticAverse]

52. Once you get to coveredca you are on a separate site as California is running their own exchange. nt

[kestrel91316]

59. Well they hired buffoons to create the website/write the code/whatever, lol.

Fortunately, that is a separate issue from insurance and the ACA. It's just annoying.

If all else fails, I can file a paper application.

[carolinayellowdog]

22. these are not small issues and it's easy for you with a state exchange to hurl invective

at those of us who have spent many hours over many days and still can't get our applications accepted.

[TheDebbieDee]

7. Wolf Blitzer just let Rep Buck Mckeon (R) get away with stating

that less than 10 people, nationwide, have signed up for Obamacare - he said he read it in Forbes Magazine.

To Wolf's credit, he challenged the Congressman and got him to admit that 565 people had signed up for Obamacare in Maryland.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. Nope. I get the success URL and a blank screen.

Tomorrow, it will probably go back to not recognizing my login and then segue back to "Success URL." I'm not going to get too upset until December 1.

[ScreamingMeemie]

31. Update!! Success!!! (without the URL ;) )

Made it all the way through to the electronic signature page. It's not accepting that, but every step forward is a step.

[grantcart]

9. I logged into my existing account without problem today.

[DebJ]

11. Did you happen to see if Highmark PPO is in the exchange?

[Shivering Jemmy]

17. Sorry didn't see

[DebJ]

62. WOW THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Hope that is right...premiums $700 less even before a subsidy...if plans are the same.
Still trying to get a log in. Guess I'll have to try at 1 am or something.

[DevonRex]

64. Deb, this one is much better for specific plans offered in your county.

https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=planestimationtool

It's just a really simple thing where you answer a few questions and it'll give you ballpark numbers. The important thing is that it gives the exact plans available by name and company, etc. It's not the actual application and you're not creating an account.

Then go further and you'll see the link to calculate your estimated subsidy. HHS uses the Kaiser Family Foundation calculator for this and it's pretty darned accurate. Here's the Kaiser FF homepage link since it has all sorts of other info as well as the subsidy calculator.

http://kff.org/

[DebJ]

65. Thanks. Interesting. Has lower premiums and different plans than the other link.

Also better rates. The highest plan a platinum Highmark is about half of what we pay now.
I can't wait until I can see the plan details so I can do the apples and oranges thing.

[DevonRex]

66. Somebody said that other site

was a Republican site with incorrect info deliberately trying to cause problems. It had been posted on DU earlier so I thought someone has vetted it already. Nope.

BUT, since that time HHS put this up and now they link to Kaiser Family Foundation to calculate your subsidy like so:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3825843

Star Member DevonRex (21,973 posts)
206. But the ones on the Kaiser site do. So, use the first one to find out which
plans are offered. Use the Kaiser site to get a better estimate based on your family size, ages, smoking status and household income. All you do is go through the process on the government site, print out the companies who are participating in the exchange if that is something you wanted to know and then scroll UP to the shaded area at the top. Click on the link for the subsidy calculator. Kaiser asks more detailed information, but not your name or anything like that. Then it can calculate your subsidy amount and your estimated premium amount.

Your premium amount will be different from what the govt site had because it is specific for all those factors.

http://kff.org/

[DebJ]

68. Just contacted our regular insurance company and we will have to really analzye our risks.

The plan we have, and pay so much for $1525, has zero deductible, 100% coinsurance, and of course, no maximums.
We used to pay about $500 a year for that plan, plus $25 copay doc and about $30 copay meds (of which there are quite a few).
The employer subsidized the rest. Believe it or not, when it went ahem 'up' to about $500 a year, the employees were griping.
I said OMG you live on another planet!

I know we will use ANY deductible limit, so it will mean comparing coverages plus calculating the difference between monthly
premiums, which we could put aside, to cover the deductible.

[DevonRex]

69. You know what pisses me off? Coinsurance.

Used to be you paid your premium and copays. Maybe a deductible. Now there's coinsurance too. Its all so complicated that you never know what the hell is going on.

Thank god for the summary of benefits so you know what your maximum out of pocket is.

[DebJ]

70. Wow again...checking further by finding information from Highmarks website about

the policy I am interested in, Comprehensive Care Blue PPO 500,
we would get the same coverage for $6000 less per year than we currently pay
(by participating in (at our full cost) our employer's (former employer's retirees here) plan.)

I wonder if the employer has an agent who gets a cut? Or the employer acts as agent and gets a cut?
Seems odd that the same coverage on the web for an individual signing up is $6000 less than going
through an employer/group plan.

Perhaps the devil will be in the details. We shall see.

Primary difference is that we would pay the first $1000 of all costs for the family deductible,
and then pay 10 or 20% of various charges
until we meet maximum out of pocket $3300.

But adding $3300 to a premium of about $9000 per year is 'only' $12300 a year.
Our premiums are now $18300 a year.

Sorry to say but using $12300 worth of services is not at all unlikely with my husband's health.

ON EDIT: THERE IS NO AGE FACTOR IN THE PREMIUMS QUOTED ON THAT SITE. I THINK WE CAN BE CHARGED
UP TO 3X MORE AS WE ARE SENIORS. WE SHALL SEE.

We shall see.

[DevonRex]

71. So did you go to the Kaiser Family Foundation site to calculate

your subsidy? they do use age, family size, income, smoker status & county to calculate subsidy and a ballpark premium.

ETA: So that last page you were on, scroll up.There's a link in the shaded area for subsidy calculator. It goes to the Kaiser Foundation site. It's NOT for Kaiser insurance though. The foundation is just really helpful.

[DebJ]

73. If we get a subsidy, it will be a very small one.

Most likely none though. We are very close to 400% of poverty level for a family of two.

[DebJ]

14. I called the 800 number they tried to walk me through it.

Tried to get the system to send me an email with my login that didn't result in any email
either. She said it is prime use time now so I'll try again later tonight.

[DebJ]

15. What time of day did you do this? That's when I want to try. Thanks. n/t

[Shivering Jemmy]

16. Just now

Went in and put again. 30 second wait and popped right in.

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. Arrrrrgh... I HATE hearing this!

Even though I'm happy for you.

[kestrel91316]

19. I have the CoveredCA portal bookmarked so I don't go through healthcare.gov for my

MANY MANY MANY login attempts.

Still unable to log in.

[carolinayellowdog]

21. much better this morning for me than the previous several days

But have yet to hear back that my drivers license sufficed to override Experian's inability to confirm my existence.

There are some very creepy conspiracy theories being floated that everyone who has a frustrating experience with the website and posts about it is in fact a rightwing plant out to undermine DU and the ACA. This kind of bullshit is quite the deterrent to speaking up, but I hope there is less to speak up about with every day improving somewhat over the previous day's frustration level.

I must say that the 800 number is a much more user-friendly experience at this point, and both times I called was able to get through and quite satisfied with the professionalism of the contact person to whom I spoke. They seemed pretty frustrated with the technical aspects and the Experian identity check problems especially. Oh, no! Doesn't that imply that the employees are part of the same conspiracy as some of us DUers to disrespect Experian, and therefore undermine the Obama presidency?

[bvar22]

23. We have been trying continuously since last Tuesday. No luck.

We have completed the initial registration, and have been told that we have successfully created an account, but can't move on from there.

[Shivering Jemmy]

25. Create a new one

I had too. Old ones appear screwn.

[bvar22]

26. Thanks. We'll try.

[Roland99]

24. not for me. :(

Info icon
The webpage cannot be found

HTTP 404


Most likely causes:
•There might be a typing error in the address.
•If you clicked on a link, it may be out of date.


What you can try:



Retype the address.



Go back to the previous page.



Go to and look for the information you want.



More information

[Paulie]

33. In general 400 series errors are local

Where 500 series are the server.

So could be DNS issue on your machine or at your internet provider.

[Ruby the Liberal]

42. I never knew that

Makes sense though!

Good to see ya

[Paulie]

44. Hi!

They could make the error less cryptic but that's the web for ya.

Great to see you too!

[Ruby the Liberal]

50. I posted below that I heard this week, they coded this thing in Cold Fusion

W the actual F?

[Paulie]

54. The front end isn't. But likely the integration pieces are written in a bit of everything

This integrates with different departments and state govs so can be a bit of a mixed bag.

But this article about it using dynamically generated static pages is neat.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/healthcaregov-code-developed-by-the-people-and-for-the-people-released-back-to-the-people/277295/

[Ruby the Liberal]

57. I am long a huge fan of open source

and applaud the administration for taking this route - but the team behind Drupal didn't code for/anticipate this traffic? That makes it even worse. No way those guys didn't anticipate the volume of people applying + ineligible/international looky loos.

[Ruby the Liberal]

38. I just pinged them

and got 4 TTLs @54 which is rather quick. Unfortunately, they have blocked the ability to reach the site by using the IP address in the address bar.

You can test this though.

Open a command line in DOS and type 'ping 23.203.7.205' (without the quotes) then 'ping healthcare.gov' (without the quotes)

If one gets you there but the other stalls, you can refresh your dns by typing in 'ipconfig /flushdns' (again, no quotes)

If you aren't on Windoze - here are other operating system instructions: http://www.wikihow.com/Refresh-DNS

[Roland99]

40. I got thru a couple hrs ago

I'm in the U.K. on business so wondered if a non-US ip was part of the problem. Tried a proxy this evening and it worked. I'm still "In Progress"

[Ruby the Liberal]

41. Excellent.

They may have put something in place for international IPs to stem curiosity seeking while they work through the issues. I heard the other day that the site was written in Cold Fusion Last decade's solutions delivered tomorrow...

[BP2]

27. No luck here either, but the spare time is

letting me clear out the cobwebs

[byronius]

28. Website and massive ACA discount in my current coverage BOTH worked beautifully.

[gopiscrap]

29. Good deal, I think it get easier and easier as the days go by!

[Autumn]

34. I tried to get on today and couldn't get on.

I'll try again tomorrow.

[Brigid]

35. Nope. Just tried. No luck.

Can't even get my account created.

IN didn't set up its own exchange, so we have to use healthcare.gov. I know what's going to happen: people aren't going to be able to get anything done and blame the feds when a little state cooperation would help. Of course this stupid state doesn't want anything to work that would actually help people!

[IADEMO2004]

55. Same boat here can't even create an account ID

Dufus Gov. no state exchange and he is just now, after years of opposition, trying to get approval for his own version of Medicaid expansion

[pnwest]

36. I haven't even tried to sign up yet, thought

Last edited Thu Oct 10, 2013, 09:56 PM - Edit history (3)

I'd wait for the initial logjam of folks attempting to log on cleared up. But I am intrigued by the wide disparity in the rates of success y'all are reporting, so I'm going to try now. I'll report on how it works out.

Wish me luck!

Edit: Update
Locate ACA website, was referred to Washington State's website, create account, fill out and submit application. 30 mins.
Unable to process, was given a phone number to call. Wait time was 108 mins, selected callback option. await return call...

...well, three hours later, no call back yet. Bummer. I was SO hoping I'd fall into the no-drama category, LOL . Try again tomorrow...

Update: 24 hrs later, no callback yet...you can see where this is going...

[Brigid]

37. Good luck! Let us know!

[Shivering Jemmy]

39. Still logging in and out with no delay

Once you get the account, is it easier, I wonder?

[bluestate10]

43. What company supplies your internet service and what technology is your service on?

The common technologies are Cable Modem (the most common being Xfinity by Comcast), DSL (still around, but becoming less common), T1 (typically used by businesses), Fiber Optic (the most well known being FIOS from Verizon).

The technology that a person uses is important when a person is doing activity on sites that have tiered applications that do functions such as verify existing and new users, perform list based call-up and displays (the user creates a set of choices via answering questions or selecting choices from a list, then a application use the user's list to select information for display that meets the user's selection criteria), and allows a user to examine one or more displays for more detail (for example, a person may want to know whether a particular insurance plan offers Adult Dental as part of the plan). Every path that a user takes can present issues where the user's ISP technology doesn't sync well with the site's technology, that problem can cause freeze-up at any level and prevent a person affected by the freeze-up from accessing more functions on the site.

[Shivering Jemmy]

48. Comcast at home (cable)

and from work I was using my Verizon Wireless hotspot.

[pnwmom]

46. Was that the U.S. site or a state site that you went through?

[Shivering Jemmy]

47. US Site

[pnwmom]

49. Great! Glad to hear that. nt

[BarackTheVote]

51. Got in earlier, can't get in now

I got in earlier just before I had to go in to work. It was working fine except that it kept rejecting my confirmation questions. No idea what that was about, but didn't have time to call support before I had to leave. Now my connection keeps either timing out on log-in or sending me to a 404 page. I'll keep trying, but, damn.

Anyone entertained the thought that the website might be getting attacked by Right Wing hackers? If Anonymous can bring down a gov't website, I wonder what the Koch Bros can afford with their ungodly billions. I know it's a far-out conspiracy theory, but... is it really?

[Hoyt]

53. A friend of mine is a hacker. . . . . .

[Roland99]

61. A friend of mine is a slacker....

[hay rick]

56. You can download the forms, print them and mail them in. Links:

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Forms-Reports-and-Other-Resources/Downloads/marketplace-app-short-form.pdf
Single adults- for single adults who aren’t offered health coverage from their employer and don’t have any dependents and can’t be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return.

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Forms-Reports-and-Other-Resources/Downloads/marketplace-app-short-form-instructions.pdf
Single adults- instructions.

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Forms-Reports-and-Other-Resources/Downloads/marketplace-app-standard.pdf
Standard form- use for your family or anyone in your family.

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Forms-Reports-and-Other-Resources/Downloads/marketplace-app-standard-instructions.pdf
Standard form- instructions.

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Forms-Reports-and-Other-Resources/Downloads/marketplace-app-no-financial-assistance.pdf
Non-financial assistance- anyone who needs health insurance coverage can use this form.

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Forms-Reports-and-Other-Resources/Downloads/marketplace-app-no-financial-assistance-instructions.pdf
Non-financial assistance- instructions.

[Zorra]

67. Thanks. That will be a very helpful post to many people. nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

72. Thank you. It's always good to have a Plan B. nt

[Skip Intro]

58. Have you viewed the plans? n/t

[Pretzel_Warrior]

60. Great news. Looks like they are making headway

On some of the technical issues they've uncovered.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

63. Kick