Update: 2 Dec 2013,
It appears that the folks at healthcare.gov did make some changes. But they still don't ask for your income show you can check subsidies. That is still a major flaw in the shopping part of their crap system. There is no reason that the site can't show those subsidies before folks login/register. There are also no direct links to the health insurance company offering the plan. The site also doesn't currently come up with anything but a please wait notice when you do try to login.
I did a bit of research last night and compared the functionality of healthcare.gov and healthsherpa.com. I found one site amazingly useful and well thought out. I found the other site to simply be poorly thought out trash. I decided to illustrate my points with screen shots. So to see the pics full screen with all the comments on them, click the pics and they will open in a new window (tab). Lets start with the opening pages for both sites. On the left is healthsherpa.com and on the right is healthcare.gov. Healthsherpa is clean and gets to the point, healthcare.gov is real pretty green and you have to look for the button to do your shopping. You be the judge.
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Next we will have a look at the second page. On the healthsherpa.com page all the info is right there. Your County, based on area code from page one, your age, smoker or not, and a button to add more people. At the bottom (not shown) is an entry for income. And on only the second page you are seeing some quotes. On the other hand over at healthcare.gov we have a boatload of information with a tiny little text link about halfway down the page to move on to the shopping. They mention that the info provided doesn't take into account your income or subsidies. Why not? That is really bad for a commercial site. People want the bottom line.
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Moving on now we would basically be done with the healthsherpa.com site but I'll throw up another pic with how the page looks if you don't qualify for subsidies. The healthcare.gov site, well we are still plodding along. They have just gotten around to asking for what type of coverage you are looking for. Seems to me that should have been on page one,but I guess the contractors are being paid by the page.
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On the next page we find that, uh, well, at healthsherpa.com I just decided to check what would come up for someone with a very low-income. Over at healthcare.gov, well here we go with another page with lots of pretty colors and very little substance. This one wastes an entire page to select between 2 different radio buttons. No I am not kidding, this is no shit. One entire page devoted to selecting between Health and Dental plans. Really? Did these people ever even look at a web page, any web page anywhere,ever? Sure there is the typical disclaimer that has shown up on all the previous pages about how they are not really going to show you the exact price because, uh, why? Oh, I know, they don't know how to do that.
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I guess I could continue to show you more pictures of each and every plan listed on healthsherpa.com but instead I'll just show you a shot of the cookies. Only 2 cookies at the healthsherpa site. Now over on the right side the folks at healthcare.gov they are now asking us for our state and county. Rather than simply asking for the zip code and only for the county if the zip code crosses county lines. Yes, another entire page just to put in our location. But they did put that nifty disclaimer on this page also. These government guys are really good at something, just not websites.
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So if you were using healthsherpa.com you would be like the folks in the picture, relaxing somewhere. But over at healthcare.gov things are still plodding along like a 90-year-old man climbing Mt. Everest only slower. Now they are using an entire page to get our age and the number of folks being covered. That maybe could have fit on a previous page. Oh, I see, there is that stupid damned disclaimer again. I guess the theory is that if you show it enough someone might read it?
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Our users of healthsherpa.com have now had time to book a flight on this beautiful jet and are heading for the airport. Meanwhile back at healthcare.gov we are reading a page that is absolutely useless. This page is sort of like telling you how your new car features will work, before you have ever seen the car or been given a price. It is all common sense crap that has nothing to do with getting a price quote. This page belongs in the trash folks. Mr. healthcare.gov page coder,dude,delete this page before I go bonkers and order a hit on everyone. My sanity at this point of comparing sites has begun to suffer. I blame Uncle Sam.
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The folks who used healthsherpa.com are now enjoying a good TSA frisking, while over at healthcare.gov things are not going so well. You see our government friends have included a whole page on incomes and subsidy qualifications. They could have built this in by simply asking for your income numbers a few thousand words and about 6 pages ago. This is the point where as I went through the site taking my screenshots I began to realize that even brain-dead morons have a place in the world and that place my friends is working for the government.
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The folks who used healthsherpa.com are now getting a good stiff drink at 30,000 ft while over at healthcare.com they are explaining categories to us? Yes, they are, instead of simply indicating the deductible and plan types on a previous page we now have to put up with step 9 of 10. Did I mention that the freaking disclaimer is on this page also. It is becoming like an old friend. You know, the one that won't go home, even though he has told all his jokes and the beer has run out? Lose the goddamned disclaimer folks! Trying to remain calm, we are almost there.
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Over on the left our healthsherpa.com users are heading for the beach in Jamaica while over at healthcare.gov we have some prices. I know hard to believe isn't it? Of course there are some inconsistencies. Why no link to the actual health insurance company? If I am not eligible for a subsidy why should I bother with the government? Oh wait, there is the problem, they didn't ask income therefore they are not showing subsidies. They want you to come on in and share your information on a site constructed by amateurs. The good news is that the damned disclaimer is still with us.
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There is nothing else to report on healthsherpa.com, so just go visit their website. Over on heathcare.com we can see that they have dropped 12 cookies on us, all to see a price that the disclaimer says is not accurate? Would you buy a car from these people? Me neither.
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I want to point out that I am not endorsing healthsherpa.com and I'll admit it has some minor drawbacks but the site itself is an example of what the government version should look like. The government website is completely useless as a shopping site. Without full information the price quotes are nothing but garbage. The healthcare.gov site layout is pretty but also quite clunky. Far too many pages to get to the prices. Far too many disclaimers. I suggest that no one use the government website until it is 100% functional with the same upfront pricing you get at amazon.com or any other commercial website. The government wanted to get in the healthcare business but they are going to have to learn how to actually sell a product. Currently a 5-year-old with a lemonade stand is light-years ahead of them. Incidentally the folks who used healthsherpa.com decided to move to Jamaica permanently after seeing how high their new premiums were.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled surfing.
Tim
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