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What if we bought individual health insurance through our tax preparers? At first, the idea seems bizarre, but give me a minute to explain.

Given the well-known problems of HealthCare.gov and many of the state health exchanges, people seeking insurance coverage need a better way to buy. And commercial alternatives to government sites seem an obvious portal to Affordable Care Act coverage.

You can buy directly through insurance company websites, but the Obama Administration worries that would make it impossible to compare policies offered by different carriers in the way you聽could on a well-functioning exchange. For instance, if I go the Blue Cross site, I鈥檓 not likely to learn much about Kaiser Permanente鈥檚 offerings. On the other hand, commercial online health insurance marketplaces allow for comparison shopping, but raise issues of privacy (and perhaps even fraud from fake sites).

Or, you could make your purchase of health insurance a relatively seamless part of filing your tax return.聽

It actually makes a lot of sense. After all, the Affordable Care Act subsidies are tax credits and the information you need to figure out your subsidy amount is based on the income tax you pay. The penalty you鈥檇 owe for not buying insurance is a federal tax. Tax preparers already have鈥攁nd are legally required to protect鈥攏early all the personal information they鈥檇 need to help figure the subsidy.

Storefront tax preparers can connect customers to health insurance markets through in鈥損erson contact. Or people could link electronically through a website such as Intuit鈥檚 TurboTax.听听

Brian Haile, Jackson Hewitt鈥檚 senior vp for health policy, predicts more people could end up buying through their connection with聽tax preparers than any other portal. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a no-brainer,鈥� he told me, 鈥淭he Affordable Care Act is a series of amendments to the Internal Revenue Code and we help customers with their taxes. We can make this far more accessible for folks.鈥澛犅�

I鈥檓 hardly the first person to think of this. My Urban Institute colleague Stan Dorn has been聽idea since 2011鈥攍ong before the HealthCare.gov site crashed. And now聽tax prep outfits are聽taking steps in this direction.

Tax preparers won鈥檛 act as insurance brokers themselves. Instead, they are partnering with commercial online health marketplaces to ease enrollment.听听聽

For example, Jackson Hewitt is working with the online聽marketplace Getinsured to enroll people. Jackson Hewitt will calculate subsidies and potential penalties and, if customers choose, transmit that information to Getinsured. If the聽Jackson Hewitt customer wants to buy coverage, all she鈥檒l need to do聽is pick an insurance plan. Jackson Hewitt can even fill out all the paperwork for people to enroll in Medicaid. It says it will not charge for any of these insurance-related services.

Because Jackson Hewitt has 2800 locations in Walmart stores, it could be an especially important link to the uninsured.听听聽

H&R Block announced in September that it is partnering with the commercial online health exchange GoHealth to help people enroll through Block-branded online chat and phone support. Block also announced that it will have insurance agents located in its Arizona tax offices as part of a pilot program.

Intuit has created a product called TurboTax Health to assist buyers and has entered into its own partnership with the commercial online marketplace eHealth Inc.听听

Combined, these three firms alone claim to help file nearly 50 million returns鈥攎aking them a huge potential portal for insurance buyers. The IRS estimates that about two-thirds of low-income taxpayers use paid preparers鈥搈any聽use walk-in firms such as Block and Jackson Hewitt. And Haile estimates that 90 percent of the uninsured get refunds. He predicts these individuals will be far more interested in buying insurance with those refunds in-hand than they are today, when they are聽focused on holiday shopping.

Using tax prep firms as a link into the health insurance market won鈥檛 solve all the problems of the Affordable Care Act. For instance, the Obama Administration still needs to make sure the back end of its electronic system works, including the government data hub needed to verify buyer information. But Haile is right: For many people-especially those eligible for subsidies鈥攖he tax filing season is a perfect time to enroll and tax preparers are a great way to connect them to plan options.

Given its problems with the government site, the Administration ought to be promoting these commercial alternatives. And tax prep firms ought to seize the opportunity.听听聽聽聽