What % of USA covered by Federal ACA exchange site?

[cthulu2016]

It strikes me that more than 50% of the US population would be in states with state exchanges. (States that did not opt to sabotage the ACA by refusing to set up their own exchanges.)

Are these state exchanges dependent on the federal web site? That is, do problems with the federal site affect them somehow? Is th state exchange process self-contained?

How many people in these states are going to the federal site, rather than their state exchange sites?


[font color=green]Was talking to someone in a deep blue state who was having trouble with Federal exchange and was unaware of the state exchange, which got me thinking about this... how many folks don't even know about their state exchange. The media treats this as if the fedral site, that shouldn't even have to exist, it a sensible world, except to direct to state exchanges, is the entirety of the operation.[/font color]

[LAGC]

1. Well, when its actually working, the Federal exchange redirects users to state exchanges instead.

If that is how its setup in their state.

Of course, if people can't even get that far...

[cthulu2016]

2. I would suggest making "what state do you live in" the first question

if it is not already.

[LAGC]

3. I'm pretty sure it is. (n/t)

[Ms. Toad]

4. Or, hey, people could read a newspaper,

or do a quick internet search, and find out if their state is one of the 34 which are served by the exchanges and skip the exchange altogether if they don't.

[IronLionZion]

6. There's tons of pure bullshit floating around

its up to us as individuals who know about it to steer people in the right direction to help them sign up.

[Ms. Toad]

7. My point is that it is pretty easy to find out whether your state

has a separate marketplace, or is dependent on healthcare.gov.

Anyone going online to sign up through healthcare.gov should be able to figure it out without signing up at a site which can't serve them anyway.

That isn't to say that we shouldn't also be providing information to steer them in the right direction - just that it isn't any big secret, or particularly hard to find out, whether your state has its own marketplace or is participating in the exchange.

[IronLionZion]

8. Yes. nt

[IronLionZion]

5. Everyone gets that far

I've helped quite a few people with that. You don't have to log in to find the link to the state's marketplace. You also don't have to log in to see local prices on the national exchange for states that don't have their marketplace.

The issues with the site are mainly with identity and income verification for those who want to create an account and apply for subsidies.