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HealthCare.gov API

Free HealthCare.gov API with no key: official US health insurance glossary, articles, topics and guidance content as structured JSON. Tested curl example.

No API key requiredHTTPSFree tier

Endpoint tested and returned HTTP 200 on 2026-08-20

What is the HealthCare.gov API?

The HealthCare.gov API is a free, key-free API publishing the official content of the US health insurance marketplace — glossary definitions, explanatory articles, topics and guidance — as structured JSON.

This is an unusual and useful API: rather than data, it publishes the site's entire content library — every glossary term, article and guidance page — as JSON, in both English and Spanish.

The glossary is the standout. US health insurance terminology is genuinely confusing, and having authoritative government definitions of deductible, coinsurance, formulary and the rest available programmatically is valuable for any product touching US healthcare.

Quick facts

Base URL
https://www.healthcare.gov/api
Authentication
No API key required.
Rate limit
No published limit — it is static JSON.
Pricing
Free public domain US government content.
CORS
Not enabled — call it from your server
Official docs
Read the docs

How to use the HealthCare.gov API

Every request below was executed against the live API on 2026-08-20, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

1. Fetch the content index

GET https://www.healthcare.gov/api/index.json

curl
curl 'https://www.healthcare.gov/api/index.json'
JavaScript (fetch)
const res = await fetch("https://www.healthcare.gov/api/index.json");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);
Python (requests)
import requests

res = requests.get("https://www.healthcare.gov/api/index.json", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())
Response — HTTP 200 (truncated)
[
  {
    "tags": [
      "glossary"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "glossary"
    ],
    "topics": [],
    "title": "Affordability Exemption",
    "es-title": "Exención de accesibilidad",
    "url": "/glossary/affordability-exemption/",
    "bite": "An exemption that’s needed when applying for Catastrophic coverage for people 30 years or older whose coverage is unaffordable. Affordability exemptions are ...",
    "es-bite": "Una exención que se necesita al solicitar cobertura catastrófica para personas de 30 años o más cuya cobertura no es accesible. Las exenciones de accesibilid...",
    "audience": [],
    "segment": [],
    "insurance-status": [],
    "state": [],
    "condition": []
  },
  {
    "tags": [
      "glossary"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "glossary"
    ],
    "topics": [],
    "title": "Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement",
    "es-title": "Acuerdo de reembolso de gastos médicos de cobertura individual",
    "url": "/glossary/individual-coverage-hra/",
    "bite": "A type of Health Reimbursement Arrangement that reimburses medical expenses, like monthly premiums, and requires eligible employees and dependents to have in...",
    "es-bite": "Un tipo de Acuerdo de Reembolso de Gastos Médicos (HRA en inglés) que reembolsa los gastos médicos, como las primas mensuales, y requiere que los empleados y...",
    "audience": [],
    "segment": [],
    "insurance-status": [],
    "state": [],
    "condition": []
  },
  {
    "tags": [
      "glossary"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "glossary"
    ],
    "topics": [],
    "title": "Cafeteria

Parameters

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
index.jsonpathOptionalEvery content item with its metadata. index.json
glossary.jsonpathOptionalThe full insurance glossary. glossary.json
topics.jsonpathOptionalContent organised by topic. topics.json
blog.jsonpathOptionalBlog and news content. blog.json

Response fields

titlestring
Content item title.
es-titlestring
Spanish title, where a translation exists.
urlstring
Path on healthcare.gov.
categoriesarray
Content categories such as glossary.
tagsarray
Topic tags.
contentstring
The body content, on detail endpoints.
datestring
Publication date.

What you can build with the HealthCare.gov API

  • Add authoritative insurance term definitions to a health product
  • Build a bilingual health insurance help centre
  • Surface official guidance during an enrolment flow
  • Create educational content on US healthcare

Common errors and how to fix them

Large index response

index.json contains every content item.

Fix: Fetch it once and cache; the content changes infrequently.

Missing Spanish translation

Not every item is translated.

Fix: Null-check es-title before falling back to English.

Expecting plan or pricing data

This API serves content, not marketplace data.

Fix: Insurance plan and pricing data comes from separate CMS marketplace APIs that require registration.

HealthCare.gov API — frequently asked questions

Is the HealthCare.gov API free?

Yes, completely free with no API key. It is US government public domain content.

Does it provide insurance plan prices?

No. This API publishes site content — glossary, articles and guidance. Plan and pricing data comes from separate CMS marketplace APIs that require registration.

Is content available in Spanish?

Yes for much of it, via the es-title and related fields, though not every item is translated.

What is the most useful part?

The glossary. Authoritative government definitions of US insurance terms like deductible, coinsurance and formulary are genuinely hard to source elsewhere.

Tools that pair with this API

HealthCare.gov is an independent third-party service and is not affiliated with ByteTools or ByteVancer. Details on this page were verified on 2026-08-20; always check the official documentation before relying on this API in production, as terms and limits can change.