The Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s Health Insurance Marketplace was designed to enable individuals with low-to-moderate incomes to purchase subsidized, affordable health plans, including about two million uninsured Texans. The Marketplace in Texas is operated by the federal government and accessed through the healthcare.gov website and affiliated call centers. In March 2014, we surveyed adult Texans to determine whether, when, why and how they accessed the Marketplace. The data show that almost all adult Texans were aware of the Marketplace and that more than two million looked for information about Marketplace plans. Almost half of those wanted to purchase insurance and/or check their eligibility for a premium subsidy. Those looking for plans relied heavily on the healthcare.gov website, which they found helpful and rarely relied on navigators or health care providers for information.
The Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) is a quarterly survey of adults ages 18-64 that began in 2013. …