If your Adjusted Gross Income enables you to qualify for subsidized health coverage, you will need to complete a Covered CA Application. The Covered California Application process is fairly involved. On this page, we will teach you how to do your online enrollment.

A word of caution:
There is a paper version of the Covered CA application form. DO NOT send this application form to Covered California. It will significantly delay your enrollment.

Instead, send the Covered California paper application to our office and we’ll enter the information online to speed up your application.


Overview of Covered California Application

health insurance on covered california
During open enrollment for Covered California, or during a Special Enrollment Period when you have a qualifying event, your best strategy is to do an online enrollment application. You can call SPF Insurance and one of our advisors will help you complete the application, or you can do the process yourself.

The first step is to Create An Account on Covered California. The account or profile creation is a multi-step process. See the instructions that follow below.

Once your account is complete, you can begin the application.

The Covered CA application is divided into five sections:

  1. Household

    In this section you will put the information about each person in the family, and what the relationship is between each person in your application. If not a US citizen you will be asked for information about your visa or immigration status.
    Personal Data – asks you for demographic information, tax return information, and health insurance information for each person in the application. There are some tricky questions here.

  2. Income

    The income section of the application breaks your total Adjusted Income into 4 categories, similar to what is shown of the first page of your federal tax return. Keeping things simple in this section will reduce your headaches.

  3. Eligibility

    Here is where you tell Covered CA about any qualifying events you have. Then you sign the application and the eligibility process starts. Once complete (it takes about 10 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on how busy the website it), it will show you what you qualify for, and if you need to provide any additional information.

  4. Enrollment

    This is where you select the Covered CA health plan you want. You will also be given the ability to make the binder payment at the end of this section of the application.


How To Successfully Complete Your Covered California Online Application

The first step in enrolling on Covered California is to register and create your account profile.

Click on this link to register https://v.calheers.ca.gov/apspahbx/login.portal?lang=en_US#
CoveredCA.com Log In Page Image Click on the “Create one now” link just under the yellow Log In button.

This will take you to Step 1 of the 5 step account creation process. “Use Of This Website” page.

USE OF THIS WEBSITE - Covered California Application
USE OF THIS WEBSITE
Check the box to agree to Covered California’s terms and conditions, and then click the gray “Continue” button on the right. You will go to the “User Information” page.

User Information
User Information

During your account setup only insert information in the required fields which have a red asterisk. Leave the social security field blank.

If an SPF Insurance broker completed the application for you and you are connecting to that application, then answer the question at the bottom with a “YES”. This will show the field where you can enter the 6 character Access Code your broker gave to you.

Click the yellow “Continue” button to go to the “Contact Information” page.

Contact Information page on Covered California application
Contact Information
Fill in the required address information. You do not have to enter an email or a phone number.

Then click the yellow “Continue” button to go to the “Username& Password” page.

Username and password page on Covered California application
Username & Password
Here you will create your username and password. Write these down and keep them safe.

Password Rules For Covered California

The Covered California website has somewhat strict rules regarding passwords for new accounts. Here are the rules you need to follow to create a valid password for your account.

  1. Your password must start with a letter and include the following:
    1. At least 1 upper-case letter (A-Z)
    2. At least 1 lower-case letter (a-z)
    3. At least 1 number (0-9)
    4. At least 1 special character (#,$,%, etc.)
  2. DO NOT use words found in a dictionary or names
    Example:
    James Incorrect – is a name
    Vacation Incorrect – is a dictionary word
    ASDFGh1# Correct
    TWISJK12$ Incorrect – does not contain a lower-case letter
  3. Your password must have at least 8 characters and no more than 16 characters
  4. New passwords cannot be one that you have used within the last 24 passwords

When you’ve entered your new password twice, you will then create a 4 digit “Pin” number. You will use this number when signing your application or making changes at any time. Therefore, remember the PIN number.

Once you’ve entered the PIN twice, click the yellow “Continue” button in the lower right.

username or password error on Covered California applciation
Error with User name or Password
In this example the “janedoe1234” username has been used before. We’ll have to create a new username and try again.

I’ve seen many people get hung up at this stage. Don’t get frustrated. Just know that 2-3 million other people have already created usernames so you will have to be more creative than a simple name and number sometimes.

When all else fails, create your username or password using a random set of letters, numbers, and special characters. This works 99% of the time.

Then click the yellow “Continue” button in the lower right to go to the “Account Summary” page.

account summary page of covered california account setup
Account Summary
Verify that the information shown here is correct. If there are errors, you can use the gray “edit” button next to each section to make corrections.

Once the information is verified and correct, click the yellow “Continue” button in the lower right.

account creation confirmation on covered california application
Account Creation Confirmation
Congratulations! Your account is successfully set up. Now you are ready to login using the yellow “Login” button.

This will take you to the “Security Questions” page.

security questions page for covered california applicaiton
Security Questions
Once you completed these 5 security questions, make sure you write them down so you remember the answers.

Then click the gray “Continue” button in the lower right to go to the “Login Assistance” page.

login assistance page for covered california application
Login Assistance
Using either email or cell phone text verification is optional. If you do not want to give out your email or phone number, then check the box at the very bottom and then click the gray “Continue” box in the lower right. You will go to the home page of your Covered California application.
welcome home covered california page
Welcome Page
This is the home page for your Covered California application.

Every time you log in to your account you will come to this page.

Begin your application by clicking the yellow “Apply Now” button.

Connect SPF Insurance To Your Covered California Application

After you log into your CoveredCA.com account, and after you click the “Apply Now” button, put your cursor over the “NEED HELP?” link in the upper right corner. In the drop down menu, select “Find Local Help.”
Find an Agent Overlap panel
This will bring up a panel on top of the page that shows 3 options: Find Certified Enrollment Counselor, Agents, County Human Services Agencies.
Click the yellow Find Agents button. This will switch you to the search panel.
Search for SPF Insurance broker at Covered California
Use the “Search by Name” options and enter: “SPF Insurance” in the Business Name and then click the yellow “Search” button.

If you have been working with a specific broker at SPF Insurance, you can enter their first and last name and then click the yellow “Search” button.

This will take you to the search results page.
Agent search results on Covered California
You’ll probably see only one listing. If there is more than one, select the one with the San Diego county address (SPF Insurance corporate headquarters is San Diego, CA 92128 address, and Timothy Thompson is the founder). Click on the name, and that will take you to the broker profile page.
Broker profile page for SPF Insurance and Tim Thompson
In the upper portion of the profile there is a blue Agent Selection area with a Yellow “Continue” button.
Click the Continue button to begin the designation process.
Find an Agent Overlap panel - Search Results - Broker Bio - Agent Designation entries
On this page you will see 3 check boxes and an electronic signature to fill in.
Covered California requires that you check all 3 boxes in order to designate your application to be accessible to SPF Insurance brokers for assistance assistance.
Once you’ve completed the signature, click the yellow “Confirm” button.
Agent Desination Complete
At this point you are done, and you will see a “Success!” message.
To get out of this area and go back to your application just click the “x” in the upper right corner of your browser window, or click the gray “Close” button at the lower right corner, and it will remove the panel.

At this point you have successfully attached SPF Insurance to your Covered California Application, and you are ready to begin completing the application.