Thinking of applying for Marketplace health insurance on your own? Holly McCamant, an enrollment assister at Southwest Montana Community Health Center in Butte, has some tips that can help you get started. 

Start out by going to Healthcare.gov. Do not search the internet for the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. A number of look-alike sites designed to get your information can pop up; giving them your information will result in endless phone calls and emails. 

Once you have safely landed at Healthcare.gov, you will click on “Get Coverage” and will be directed to the page where you can create an account. If you have ever had an account—and you may not be aware that you have one—you cannot create a new one using the same email address. If you still have access to the email connected to your old account, you can reset the password. It is also possible to use a different email address to create a new account. 

Once you have confirmed your email address by clicking on the link sent to you by the Marketplace, you will log into your newly-created account. Click on “Start an Application”. The first step is your identity check. You will be asked questions based on information in your credit report (nothing to do with your credit) and if you are successful, you will be directed to the application. 

Gathering information about your household income before you continue can help speed up the application process. You will be estimating household income for everyone on your tax return for the upcoming year. Income that is sometimes missed are things like withdrawals from IRA’s. We can’t anticipate everything, so if your household income changes from what is initially put on the application, update your information as soon as possible to avoid owing money on your income tax return.  

If you are applying for yourself or for you and your spouse and don’t have a complicated situation, you will get the short form, and it is a breeze! You won’t be asked to put in information more than once and it only takes a few minutes. If your identity was verified and you get this application, you will likely have no issues. 

If you have children, are Native American, or were born outside the United States, you will get the long form.  It is wordier, information is typed in more than once, but there is nothing difficult. The family and household section must be completed at once so make sure you have time to fill out that section. 

Once you submit your completed application, you will get eligibility results, including the amount of tax credits you are granted. When you go to the enrollment button, the first question asks how much of the premium tax credits you would like to use. If you are certain about 2019 income, you may wish to use them all. If there are circumstances that make income uncertain, you may hold back some of your premium tax credits to be sure you will not owe extra on your income tax return. 

Unsure what plan is right for you? Read through our blog post on things to consider when choosing a Montana health coverage plan when you’re deciding which plan to choose.  

If at any time you come across an issue that you don’t understand or can’t solve, either make an appointment with a local Certified Application Counselor or call the Marketplace at 1-800-318-2596 and talk to a Customer Service Representative.