According to this (and from a test I just did), you can purchase a subsidy-qualifying and ACA compliant policy at eHealthInsurance.com. It even has an option to show you your subsidy.
Has anyone done this? Does anyone know why this fact has not been made more public?
The only drawback I can see is that you don’t get the subsidy until you file taxes - and that can be a big one for many.
Of course, with eHealthInsurance in this business since 1999, they have the whole online shopping and application process nailed. If only the Feds had hired them or outsourced the whole exchange process… Adding the missing income validation and subsidy processing would have been fairly simple compared to reinventing it all.
There more differences between "off the shelf’ insurance purchase and ACA qualification.
I am exhibit A
If you are eligible for both Medicare Part A and Part B, you do not qualify for the subsidy (why they WANT me to be on Medicare instead of private insurance, I don’t know, but they are forcing me onto it. Of course, since my “new, don’t do a thing, and we’ll just switch you over” policy is 30% higher than current, I will be uninsured until I can get Medicare B - which is 7/1/14.
Adding that gotcha is another “just tweak it a bit” point.
I once worked for a company which sold a single product - a large, complex software system for the retail world.
Their salesreps agreed to “tweak” the system to accommodate Zales. That “tweak” bankrupted the company.
As it turns out, eHealthInsurance is waiting on the Fed systems for subsidy support. Eventually, you will be able to purchase from either site and get the subsidy applied immediately instead of waiting to file for a tax refund.
I did some comparison shopping and found prices 1.5% higher than my state exchange.