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Comment by deleted_account | Hacker News Reader

I'm legitimately confused. Is this supposed to compete with or replace healthcare.gov? I just ran an insurance search for a hypothetical Californian couple, late fifties, with an income of $60K. CoveredCalifornia found me plans with a monthly premium of $127/month (including assistance) while the cheapest HealthSherpa premium is $879/month.

Is HealthSherpa really helping or are they just capitalizing on the huge IT/PR snafu that is healthcare.gov?

I mean, isn't it entirely fucked up that HealthSherpa directs me to "Call Western at (888) 227-5942" without knowing that I'm eligible for government assistance?

edit: a word

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Did you adjust the Household size to 2? If you've entered 2 people, then make sure you update the household size to 2 as well. If you're in your late 50s, and your household income is $60k living in San Francisco, you can get free or almost-free coverage.

(Yes it's a bad design)

> (Yes it's a bad design)

Exactly my point. This whole site strikes me as programmer hubris.

How does an issue with the GUI indicate hubris?

Programmers live in this weird state of superimposition where things are both, "lol, i could build that in a weekend" and "Your budget is $10K!? You have no idea what's involved in building a website."

I'm familiar with that. ;) In this case, it seems that they did build it pretty quickly. [1] But UX issues can be easy to miss - it's hard to see it fresh.

1. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/11/tech/web/alternate-healthc...

Hmm. I see several subsidized plans offered with similar inputs: http://i.imgur.com/ZJpSGC4.png

Do you have a screenshot of what you're seeing?

Et voila!

http://imgur.com/RluUCMn

I am pretty sure the subsidy is area dependent too.

weaksauce

I don't think HealthSherpa ingested subsidy data from data.healthcare.gov, just the data provided by insurance companies regarding policies.

Well, now I am even more confused — here is what I see with the same inputs you said you used. You did say that this was a quote for a two-person household with a $60k income, right?

http://i.imgur.com/CfWAAop.png

I hope you report this problem to them.

What? Why? Is this a bug? It seems like their system is working great. It just gives bad advice.

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