As anticipated, there was a SHORT problem early this morning on - TopicsExpress

As anticipated, there was a SHORT problem early this morning on the website, and the CALL CENTERS and WEBSITE are inundated with the demand for assistance on the last day to Officially enroll. To give you an idea - possibly 8.7 million visits to the website in the last week. The call center had 2.5 million calls in the last week, compared to 2.4 million calls in the whole month of February. Over 250,000 people called on Saturday. As of now, when the volume gets too high, the call center is taking names and numbers to contact after 3/31, while the website is queuing customers to enter the enrollment process online. They now have this grace period that if you have made a honest effort to get enrolled but got hung up with a problem or with high volume, then you can try again after 3/31 for up to two weeks (maybe- no hard deadline yet). wwltv/news/local/Interest-in-health-care-surges-as-enrollment-deadline-nears-253174051.html Most importantly, BE PREPARED when you get started. Have all of your income information, SS numbers for those who need insurance, info on your employers insurance (if available but too high). ALSO to PRE-SCREEN yourself, I recommend going to valuepenguin and inputting information into their quick quote webpage. It will tell you if you are eligible (or S/B getting Medicaid-if expanded), list healthcare plans available to you, plus the estimate of your premium cost (with or without subsidy). You should SHOP those plans (see MORE INFO link) and CHOOSE your plan, so that when you get thru to Healthcare.gov - you wont have to SHOP then. REMEMBER if your income is TOO LOW (below poverty level), you are not eligible for insurance subsidies, but you are EXEMPTED from the insurance requirement and have NO PENALTY!!