What to do When the Healthcare.Gov Marketplace is Down

How to Get Help With Health Insurance When Healthcare.gov is Down

We explain what to do when the Healthcare.Gov Marketplace website is down during open enrollment. One option is to get help from a qualified broker.

This can either involve calling a HealthCare.Gov approved broker, or calling HealthCare.Gov directly at 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325) (although if the site is down, you can bet the lines will be busy).

BOTTOM LINE: Even if you can’t get help from HealthCare.Gov, you can still get help from websites like ours (ObamaCarefacts.com). You can get enrolled in a plan via a qualified health insurance broker such as those featured on our site, and, in some cases, get help from an insurer. Insurers won’t sign you up directly, but they can offer help. If you are confused, you can call the number on our site to talk to a broker now or fill out the form below to get organized.

TIP: Here is a checklist of what you need to sign up for the marketplace. It’ll help to get this information together.

TIP: The form below is one option for getting help, but it’s not the only one. We only work with brokers who deal with customers directly, don’t sell leads to multiple sources or share customer information, and can help customers sign up for marketplace plans during open enrollment.

Why Would HealthCare.Gov Be Down?

The Trump administration has decided to take the HealthCare.Gov down for 12 hours almost every Sunday of this year’s already very brief open enrollment period. The administration also shortened open enrollment this year.

Sunday, An Important Day For Working Families to Sign up For Coverage

Sunday is one of the most popular days for people enroll in health insurance during open enrollment. People often look at plans and compare costs and benefits during the week, but many of us buy our medical insurance plans on Sundays when many of us have time off from work.

TIP: It can take days to sign up and work through the enrollment process between choosing a plan and verifying documents. So don’t procrastinate signing up or getting help.

When is open enrollment? Open enrollment is each year from Nov 1 to Dec 15. Plans purchased during open enrollment start Jan 1st.

Why Come To Us?

We are one of the oldest, most trusted sites for healthcare and health marketplace information under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). We are an independent source of information about healthcare, and, unlike many other sites, we are not a sales site and have no relation to insurers.

We will answer your questions (or connect you with someone who can), direct you to your state’s Marketplace, or help you find a person qualified to assist you in the enrollment process.

TIP: You can only get cost assistance subsidies through your state’s health insurance marketplace or the federal marketplace during open enrollment unless you qualify for a special enrollment period. Luckily, there are a lot of options for qualified brokers outside of the marketplace who can help you enroll in a marketplace plan, and there are lots of options for assistance outside of using the HealthCare.Gov website.

Who Needs the Website Marketplace?

If you want to see if you qualify for a subsidy, you will have to apply on the Marketplace. Please realize that this will be more difficult this year.

• There was a 90% cut in the budget for giving people open enrollment and sign-up information.
• The open enrollment period is 50% shorter this year.
• There was a 40% cut in funding to navigators, who help people use the Marketplace.
• The software used by the Healthcare.gov has glitches that were not fixed. Instead, cuts were made to the tech support budget. You’ll need to give yourself time to work through these problems.

Please start early. Don’t put off enrolling and getting the help you need.