Obamacare and I

As a gainfully self-employed person, my current insurance plan was one of those canceled because of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. I wanted to believe the ACA was a good thing for me and America. That I could still get good coverage, and save money.

Hearing about all of the problems rolling out the federal marketplace site kept me from hopping onto the  site right away. But my current insurer set an end of November deadline for choosing a new plan through it....

So earlier this week I went to the federal marketplace site and painstakingly typed in all of the requested info for my application, feeling a bit odd as I wondered about the safety of my and other Americans' data. And then when I went to register...poof. I got an error message that said to try again later. I called a broker (recommended by a friend) who prefers BCBS plans, and got his take on the whole process.  Even after all I've read and heard, I wasn't aware until talking to him that I could just buy private insurance and bypass the marketplace. If I decide to do that, I'll have to see if there's a way to unregister?

I have 2 undergrad and 2 graduate degrees and passed the IL bar exam, yet I can't seem to grasp the ins and outs of all of the different plans or what the best approach for me is despite all of the information out there. It looks like I'll pay a lower monthly premium than I do now, but  my deductible will be nearly twice as high and I won't have as much 100% coverage, and, depending on the plan, might have some copays, unless I go with an HSA plan...which means more paperwork and things to figure out. Hope I stay healthy!

The special Aetna site won't let me log in, and says to call a certain 888 number. The wait was 30 minutes. I called back, deciding to suck it up and wait. The line was busy. I'll try again later.

So far, this has been a frustrating process...and despite spending several hours reading, clicking, entering and browsing, I don't have a new plan ready to go, nor am I sure if I want to be in or out of the marketplace.

I hope the process is going more smoothly for others....