Hey, Ted Cruz! These Texans Say Obamacare Is Helping Them

[Rstrstx]

3. Some tricks to the website

The biggest one is to keep reapplying over and over and over (and over) until it gets it right. You may have to do it 6,7,12 times but it'll finally work. Unfortunately you need a new user name and email account each time but they're easy enough to create one on gmail or yahoo or wherever. It doesn't seem to matter that you've already entered all your critical data like SSN etc before, you can still create a new account with the same data. Another trick seems to be when you get to the part about your income and it prompts you to estimate your income for 2013 you are given the option to click on a button that lets you use the amount you made in 2012. DO NOT DO THIS!!!. Manually enter your expected income for this year, even if it's exactly the same as it was in 2012, or else you apparently can't get a subsidy (at least that was my experience).

The system is running more smoothly and certainly was faster now than a couple of weeks ago but it's still very quirky and randomly does dumb things; heads should roll on how this thing was implemented but don't give up hope. I notice on the logon site now there is the option to complete your application online or over the phone, I don't remember that earlier.

I finally got the thing right for my friend and he should be getting a Blue Cross Silver Advantage 004 (0/$500) plan for about $22/mo. His income is not very high and to get what seems like a decent policy at this price is a godsend (if anyone thinks this might be a bad plan let me know, still haven't clicked the purchase button).