Some private enrollment websites will ask you questions about your health status (for example, your height, weight, and whether you have pre-existing conditions).  Some ask whether you are seeking short-term or long-term coverage.  Some sites will display certain plan options – such as those paying higher commissions to the web broker – more prominently or with more complete information compared to other plans that pay lower commissions.  And some sites will use personal and health information that you provide to call or send you recorded messages or texts about other products they sell; some will share information with their business partners so they can send you promotional and marketing information.

Finally, in the past, some consumers who enrolled in Marketplace plans through private enrollment websites encountered problems if the Marketplace later needed to communicate with them, but the consumer didn’t have a healthcare.gov account.