People who froze their credit reports to protect themselves after an Equifax data breach exposed millions to identity theft may have difficulty signing up for the Affordable Care Act, according to Kaiser Health News.
The freeze could trigger a delay in the application process, because signing up requires consumers, especially those signing up for the first time, to answer questions about their credit history to prove their identity.
People who have blocked access to their credit reports cannot move forward past the "ID-proofing part," according to Matthew Byrne, founder of Spiralight, an Ohio brokerage, Kaiser Health News noted.
When the user's identity cannot be verified, Healthcare.gov suggests calling the help desk, which is run by the Experian credit reporting firm, and it sometimes solves the issue if the user can answer questions about previous addresses, vehicles owned, and other information, according to Kaiser Health News.
Workarounds for users include uploading or mailing in documents, and that generally works, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said in the report.
Some brokers tell clients to unfreeze their reports until signing up, then restoring the freeze afterward, according to the report.
Rounding up documents and talking to Experian could be time-consuming, which could lead to people putting off enrollment. However, the window to enroll ends Friday, Axios noted.
Equifax was breached almost five months before the date that it publicly reported, according to a Bloomberg report.
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