Healthcare.gov: You don't qualify to purchase health coverage through the Marketplace

Hooray!  I finally got a Healthcare.gov insurance marketplace application all the way to the end -- without getting blocked or having my application prematurely processed.






The celebration comes to a sudden stop as I read the eligibility results. It says "Based on your application, you don't qualify to purchase health coverage through the Marketplace." It also goes on to explain that I don't qualify to tax credits or subsidies, or for Medicaid or CHIP. I directs me to go to community health centers for medical care.





I was not surprised that it said I was not eligible for subsidies, Medicaid, or CHIP. However, I thought nearly anyone could purchase insurance from the Marketplace. It says I do not qualify to purchase insurance from the Marketplace.

The letter said nothing about why I am not eligible.

I then went to the Learn side of the site in search of information on the requirements to purchase insurance from the Marketplace.

I find three requirements for purchasing insurance through the Marketplace: (1) live in the US, (2) be a US citizen, and (3) not be incarcerated. I meet all of these requirements. My granddaughter, for whom I'm trying to purchase insurance, also meets all these requirements. So, why am I not eligible to purchase insurance in the Marketplace?

I called Healthcare.gov customer service and asked this question. They instructed me to download an appeal form and mail in an appeal.

The appeal instructions suggest I consider involving an attorney in filing an appeal. I should not have to hire an attorney to purchase health insurance for my granddaughter.

One of my stuck Healthcare.gov applications is now MIA

One of my stuck Healthcare.gov applications that was throwing Javascript errors is now missing in action.

Opening the application gives me this mostly-blank page.

Healthcare.gov clones children

Gary reports:

My problem with the Healthcare.gov site is somewhat complex and not something I have heard of in the many reports of failures:

I have successfully completed registration and all of the steps up through to reaching the "to-do list".  

Problems I've encountered (I will try to keep them in order as I proceed through the process):

Here is where "viewing my application" lands me:

The first sign of trouble is that under "app details" in the right column, I get no response when clicking "view eligibility results".  

On the same page, I have "discrepancies" and have successfully submitted the documents they request though I have not received any confirmation that the inconsistencies have been resolved:

Going back to "resume enrollment" and clicking on that I am taken to my "to do list:

This page is where the real trouble is.  Everything is fine down through "select insurance 1".  I have successfully chosen my desired plan.

Here's where the bizarre begins:

Note that I have 3 subsequent tasks, all requesting I set insurance for the same child, Kevin, who IS included in the plan I chose in "plan 1".

Under "plan 2" I have gone to the page to pick insurance and NOT made a choice.  That has cleared the task.

Under plans 3 and 4, however, clicking on "set" takes me to a page that is blank.  It does not show any plans from which I can choose.  And on returning to the to do list the tasks will not clear:

  

I am presuming the dental plan and review/confirm tasks will remain locked until I clear plans 3 and 4.  

I had hit an identical roadblock prior to one of the maintenance outages except it happened at the "dental" step.  At the time I did NOT have the redundant insurance steps 2,3,4.  I was able to choose my family health plan and proceeded to the next step which was, as expected, "dental".  However when I clicked on dental I got the same empty page as I am getting now for insurance 2,3.  

I doubt you can help me, but hope my experience helps you as you continue working to improve the site functionality.

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Gary has reached a point in the application process that I (Ben Simo) have not been able to reach. However, I suspect that the cause of his problems is similar to that of some applications I have in a stuck state from which I cannot continue.

The system appears to send the entire application data set back and forth between the applicant's web browser and the Healthcare.gov servers throughout the application process. Most of the processing (except for the retrieval of data from back-end systems) appears to occur in the web browser rather than on the server. I have seen data get into a state that the client-side Javascript code cannot execute. In the cases I've encountered, the browser encounters errors but fails to display this to the user. The most common error I've seen is the Javascript attempting to apply string methods to null values. (And, I have observed empty strings get transformed into null values as I progress through an application.)  For the non-technical: a null value is a value that doesn't exist; one that the Javascript software running in each user's web browser treats differently than an empty or blank value.

When an application gets into this kind of state, chances are that the applicant will need to start over -- or wait for the Healthcare.gov developers to not only fix the issues putting applications into bad states; but also fix handling of applications that are already in a bad state.

Do you have an application in a bad state? Please share it with us.