If you're a resident of Washington State you use the Washington State ACA Exchange at Wahealthplanfinder to sign up for health insurance.
A brief synopsis of my situation - early retired, age 60, married. My current Group Health policy is being cancelled the end of the year, just like they do every year. The replacement non-exchange ACA-compliant policy they offered costs twice as much as this year.
On the exchange, my wife and I get a $982/mo premium subsidy, making my new Premera Blue Cross Bronze plan free.
Now that I've whetted your appetite, here are some tips for navigating the Washington exchange after the jump...
1) You have to submit an application and be found eligible before you can "buy" a plan. Yes, you can shop for a plan before submitting an application, but you won't know your actual subsidy or eligibility status, so I recommend getting your application submitted and approved first, then you can take your time shopping for a plan.
2) In the application, there's a misleading question about whether you "already have insurance coverage". If you expect to buy insurance on the exchange, leave this information blank. They're really asking about if you already have coverage for 2014, and if you say you do they will ignore your application - at least that was my experience.
3) When my application was stuck last month, I tried calling the help line (1-855-923-4633) and got hung up on because there were too many people in the queue. So I emailed customer support ( CustomerSupport@wahbexchange.org ) and was flabbergasted to get a call back within 30 minutes from a very helpful guy who got it unstuck by deleting the "already have insurance" information I had submitted.
4) After my application was approved, I've gotten two heart-stopping notifications from them that my subsidy amount had changed. The first one was apparently a duplicate of what they had already sent, and the second was a reduction of $1 - go figure!
5) According to customer support, even after you "buy" a plan and pay the first month's premium, you can change you mind and select a different plan up to the March 30th deadline. I'm guessing that you're stuck with the original plan you selected for the month of January.
6) It is to your advantage to estimate the smallest defensible income for 2014 on your application. If you understate your income to get a bigger subsidy, you'll have to pay it back at tax time 2014, but in the meantime you'll get the money to pay the premiums and possibly qualify for cost-sharing which reduces the deductible, copay, co-insurance, and total out-of-pocket for a given plan. For example, one of the plans offered to me had the deductible reduced from $1200 to $200 when I reduced my estimated annual income from $33k to $27k. Cost-sharing is determined when you apply and can't be taken away even if you a change to higher income during the year.
Ask your questions and share your own tips in the comments section.