Consumer Reports How to Buy Obamacare TextDespite president obama’s assurance that the troubled healthcare.gov website is currently undergoing fixes, consumer reports is suggesting people stay away from the federal online marketplace for another month. According to the organization’s verdict, the amount of problems cropping up means the obamacare website isn’t worth the hassle of wrestling with until it’s functioning properly. stay away from healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can, wrote nancy metcalf, who covers health care for consumer reports. hopefully that will be long enough for its software vendors to clean up the mess they’ve made. the organization noted that of the 9.47 million people who attempted to register during the first week of healthcare.gov’s availability, only 271,0 were successful. Consumer reports does offer some advice for working with the site, such as following the instructions as literally as possible, clearing a computer’s cookies when hitting a blank page, and checking your email often for an account activation message, but many people may simply decide they’re better off waiting. How to Start a Scholarship Essay About LeadershipSome outlets were quick to seize the suggestion as evidence that consumer reports had flipped its support of the law, noting that the organization’s day one review of healthcare.gov also called the site barely operational. In a separate statement, however, metcalf said that is a misrepresentation, and that consumer reports is still encouraging americans to sign up through their state’s own exchanges if possible. pundits opposed to the new health care law and some media outlets have tried to suggest that our coverage of the troubled healthcare.gov site means that consumer reports has turned against the affordable care act, metcalf wrote. Consistent with our mission to inform and protect consumers, particularly in this complicated health care market, our advice remains the same: the best place to buy coverage on your own is through the health insurance marketplace in your state. with so many states relying on the federal marketplace, though, it’s clear that many complications remain. In a rose garden speech monday, obama acknowledged there is no excuse for the problem, and that the website has been working too slow. he added that the administration would bring in technicians from inside and outside the government to fix the issues as quickly as possible. As the washington post reported monday, though, there were severe warning signs before healthcare.gov launched oct. The site crashed during tests to determine its ability to cope with the registration of thousands of individuals when the number hit only a couple hundred. Even more surprising, two anonymous sources told the post that even as late as september 26, four days before the site’s launch, there had been no tests to determine whether a consumer could complete the process from beginning to end: create an account, determine eligibility for federal subsidies and sign up for a health insurance plan, according to two sources familiar with the project. complications with healthcare.gov have even impacted some of the white house’s damage control messaging. During his rose garden address, obama was flanked by people the administration touted as beneficiaries of the affordable care act, but the daily mail reported that only three of the 13 people standing with obama had enrolled successfully in the program’s exchanges. View full size file: president barack obama stands with families who benefited from a health care law provision as he speaks about the affordable care act in the east room at the white house in washington, thursday, july 18, 2013. Ap photo/charles dharapak consumer reports has launched an interactive online tool to answer questions about the affordable care act. The consumer reports tool does not give estimates of premiums or subsidies, unlike the kaiser family foundation calculator. But cr does give easy to follow step by step information on what to do tailored to the information you provide. Although it won't give you a dollar amount, it will tell you whether or not you may qualify for a subsidy on the insurance marketplace, or exchanges. This consumer reports tool does acknowledge the coverage gap in alabama and other states that have decided not to expand medicaid. Subsidies to buy insurance on the exchange are offered to those between 100 percent in 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Those in alabama and the other non expansion states who are under 100 percent don't qualify for help paying premiums offered on the exchanges. Filling in the online form for a single person with less less than $11,490 income 100 percent of the federal poverty level , the consumer reports tool spits out this: your state chose not expand a program called medicaid to cover people like you. Consumer reports is the nonprofit publisher of consumer reports magazine and does not take money for advertisements. 3, 2013 gop majority whip kevin mccarthy falsely claimed consumer reports warned americans not to go to the healthcare.gov website because of the fear of having fraud. The consumer advocate initially advised people to wait until the websites many technical problems were worked out, but it told us that its advice was not in reference to any concerns regarding fraud. Fairy Writing PaperHouse republicans have repeatedly warned about the potential for fraud on the federal website and have accused the administration of failing to provide adequate protection against it. Consumer reports, have you ever noticed consumer reports to recommend you not to go to a website? they recommend americans not to go to the website because of the fear of having fraud. Consumer reports highlighted some of the technical problems consumers were facing trying to enroll in a plan on the federal site in the early days of the rollout. The state run marketplaces seemed to be running much more smoothly than the ones run by the federal government, the report said. If your state’s marketplace enrollment goes through healthcare.gov here’s our list of state marketplaces , your best strategy right now is to wait a couple of weeks and hope that the site irons out its many problems. Consumer reports provided some detailed tips on how to get past the roadblocks' on the site to register for insurance. After providing a handful of suggestions, the blog post concluded, if all this is too much for you to absorb, follow our previous advice: stay away from healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can. Hopefully that will be long enough for its software vendors to clean up the mess they’ve made. 3: nancy metcalf, senior program editor for consumer reports, appeared on msnbc’s the daily rundown with chuck todd on dec. 3 and advised that it’s time to start using the site. never, however, did consumer reports advise people to stay off the site due to concerns about fraud. We reached out to consumer reports for clarification, and it released this statement to factcheck.org: consumer reports statement, nov. A consumer reports blog from october advised consumers that they could wait a few weeks before visiting healthcare.gov in order to give the government time to fix technical glitches on the site. That statement was not in reference to any concerns regarding fraud in the insurance marketplaces. Our advice to consumers looking to purchase health insurance remains the same now as it was then: the best place to buy coverage on your own is through the health insurance marketplace in your state. In fact, consumers union, the policy and advocacy division of consumer reports, issued a press release announcing the white houses interagency initiative to protect consumers from being victims of fraud while using the upcoming health insurance marketplaces, including a way for consumers to report fraud through the marketplace call centers. In that release, the consumer unions director of health reform, deann friedholm, praised the commitment to preventing fraud and taking action against those connected with scams, while reinforcing the need for education to help consumers avoid these pitfalls. Despite detailing technical problems with the website, consumer reports has been generally supportive of the affordable care act, as was made clear in an oct. 21 blog posting that ran under the headline, obamacare opponents have misrepresented consumer reports position: healthcare.gov problems do not negate benefits of new health law. Pundits opposed to the new health care law and some media outlets have tried to suggest that our coverage of the troubled healthcare.gov site means that consumer reports has turned against the affordable care act. That guarantees you will get comprehensive coverage, and its the only way you can lower the cost of your premiums and possibly even your deductibles and copayments. Doing that online in most states means registering at and shopping through the federal healthcare.gov. Mccarthys concerns about fraud have been echoed by numerous opponents of the affordable care act.
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