Options For Shopping for Health Coverage

Three Options For Shopping For Health Insurance under the Affordable Care Act

To shop for coverage you can go direct to HealthCare.Gov for Marketplace plans, to a Marketplace approved broker for Marketplace and short term plans, or to a non-approved broker for short term plans only.

In other words, there are a couple of different options for getting coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

1. Enroll online, over the phone, or in person with an assister through the government exchange Healthcare.Gov. A simple and smart choice if you know you qualify for cost assistance and have a good idea of what type of plan you are looking for.
2. Enroll online, over the phone, or in person with the assistance of a HealthCare.Gov marketplace approved broker. A great choice for finding out all your options since marketplace approved brokers can help sign you up for a marketplace plan with cost assistance and can also show you plans not sold on the marketplace (like short term plans).
3. Or, enroll online, over the phone, or in person with the assistance of a non-approved broker. A solid choice for non-marketplace options like short term plans if you know you don’t qualify for cost assistance or know you don’t want to go with a major medical plan.

The marketplace assisters and marketplace approved brokers can both sign you up for a marketplace plan with cost assistance, so you’ll get the same core set of plans regardless of which option you choose!

All plans are highly regulated, and that means that the price you pay and the assistance you get, be it through a HealthCare.Gov approved broker, or HealthCare.Gov itself, are exactly the same.

Meanwhile, in terms of coverage for individuals and families in the private market, non-approved brokers can only sell you limited benefit short term plans as noted above. Limited benefit plans are not highly regulated and can fluctuate in price, benefits, and even eligibility. These plans may be right for you, but it is important to understand your options.

The cool thing is, a HealthCare.Gov approved broker can help you understand all your options due to the fact that they can sell short term and marketplace plans.

When it comes to finding private brokers we work with a consumer focused company called HealthNetwork. They have been helping people to safely enroll with HC.gov approved brokers since 2013 and like us are committed to putting people over profits.

In short, you can keep life simple and go to HealthCare.gov, or you can contact HealthNetwork and they will hook you up with a broker who can help you enroll in a healthcare.gov plan AND show you alternative options… or you can take this information and go find a broker yourself! Feel free to ask us any questions.

Be careful with lead forms: If you don’t use our site to find a broker, you’ll want to be very careful searching around and filling out forms related to health insurance online. There are a lot of spammers who target the term “Obamacare.” We have worked hard to keep the scammers off our site, but if you go out into the wild looking for brokers, make sure you are using a site you can trust. Giving your information away without caution can lead to getting spam phone calls.

Why trust us? ObamaCareFacts.com has helped tens of millions of Americans learn about the Affordable Care Act and cost assistance options since 2012 and has been used as a resource by a number of national news outlets including:

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To get health quotes from a marketplace approved broker today with the help of HealthNetwork, fill out the form below: