Healthcare.gov Scraper — Glossary, Articles & State Pages

Healthcare.gov Scraper exports public content from the official Healthcare.gov content API as clean JSON records: glossary terms, help articles, English and Spanish state pages, the bilingual site index, and any public page you list by URL. It is built for health-insurance researchers, benefits and HR platforms, and teams building knowledge bases or AI retrieval over ACA Marketplace content, and it costs USD 2.00 per 1,000 records on the FREE tier (USD 1.60 per 1,000 on GOLD).

It returns published content only. It does not quote plans, estimate premiums, check eligibility or touch anyone's account.

What data does the Healthcare.gov scraper return?

Each dataset row is one content record with a stable ID, the canonical page URL and the API URL it came from.

Field	What it contains
recordType	content for full content records, index for site-index entries
contentId	Stable ID built from the page path, for example glossary:medicaid
title, spanishTitle	Page title; the Spanish title is filled for index records
url	Canonical page on www.healthcare.gov
sourceUrl	The Healthcare.gov API URL the record was read from
contentType	First category, for example glossary or es
language	en or es when the source states it
date, author	Publication date and author when published
excerpt	Short summary (the site's "bite" text) when available
content	Public HTML body; turn off Include HTML content to omit it
categories, tags, topics, states	Taxonomy arrays from the source (empty arrays when absent)
layout	Page template name, for example glossary-word
searchQuery	The text filter used for the run
scrapedAt	Collection time (ISO 8601)
rawFields	Full original API object, only when Include raw API fields is on

A run summary is saved in the OUTPUT key-value record: status (SUCCEEDED, PARTIAL or INVALID_INPUT), record and request counts, warnings, and a suggested next step.

Is there a Healthcare.gov API for glossary terms and articles?

Yes. Healthcare.gov publishes a public JSON content API, documented at healthcare.gov/developers, and every content page also has a .json version. Healthcare.gov Scraper calls those endpoints directly, normalizes the records into one schema, removes duplicates, and lets you filter, cap and export them without writing code.

Coverage measured on 2026-10-26:

Collection	Records	Notes
glossary	256	Health-insurance terms with definitions, English
articles	436	Help and explainer pages, English
states	112	56 English and 56 Spanish state and territory pages
index mode	257	Glossary metadata with English and Spanish titles and summaries
blog, topics	0	Offered by the API but currently empty

Counts change when Healthcare.gov updates its content.

How do I export the Healthcare.gov glossary to JSON or CSV?

Choose a mode, set a limit, run, then download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML.

1. Extraction mode: collection for one collection, index for the site index, or urls for specific pages.
2. Content collection: glossary, articles, states, blog or topics (collection mode only).
3. Text filter: optional, case-insensitive; it matches titles, excerpts, content, URLs and taxonomy.
4. Language filter: en, es or blank. It applies to content records, not index records.
5. Maximum records: 1 to 500 (default 25). This is also the billing cap for the run.

Glossary terms that mention Medicaid (about 18 records today):

{
  "mode": "collection",
  "collection": "glossary",
  "query": "Medicaid",
  "maxItems": 25,
  "includeContent": true
}

Spanish state pages without HTML bodies:

{
  "mode": "collection",
  "collection": "states",
  "language": "es",
  "maxItems": 60,
  "includeContent": false
}

Specific pages by path or full URL (up to 100 per run; only healthcare.gov hosts are accepted):

{
  "mode": "urls",
  "urls": ["/glossary/medicaid/", "https://www.healthcare.gov/quality-ratings/"],
  "requestDelayMs": 250
}

When should I use Healthcare.gov Scraper, and when not?

Use it when you need the official wording of Healthcare.gov definitions and help pages in structured form: a health-insurance glossary for an app, a benefits FAQ dataset, a bilingual term list, retrieval data for an assistant, or a scheduled check for content changes.

Use another Actor when:

• You need plan prices, premiums, subsidies, deductibles or benefits for a ZIP code: Healthcare.gov Plan Scraper.
• You need hospital profiles and ratings: Medicare Hospital Compare Scraper.
• You need nursing-home ratings and staffing: CMS Nursing Home Ratings Scraper.

Use it from an AI assistant

Healthcare.gov Scraper works from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client through Apify's MCP server. Add it with https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=muhammadafzal/healthcare-gov-scraper, then ask in plain language, for example: "Pull every Healthcare.gov glossary term that mentions deductibles and give me the definitions as a table."

Run it with the API

JavaScript:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('muhammadafzal/healthcare-gov-scraper').call({
    mode: 'collection',
    collection: 'glossary',
    maxItems: 300,
    includeContent: true,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.length, items[0].title);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("muhammadafzal/healthcare-gov-scraper").call(
    run_input={"mode": "index", "maxItems": 300}
)
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item["title"], "|", item["spanishTitle"])

What does the output look like?

One glossary record and one index record (HTML shortened):

[
  {
    "recordType": "content",
    "contentId": "glossary:centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services",
    "title": "Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)",
    "spanishTitle": null,
    "url": "https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.healthcare.gov/api/glossary.json",
    "contentType": "glossary",
    "language": "en",
    "date": "2013-06-05 00:00:00 +0000",
    "author": null,
    "excerpt": null,
    "content": "<p>The federal agency that runs the Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance Programs, and the federally facilitated Marketplace...</p>",
    "categories": ["glossary"],
    "tags": ["glossary"],
    "topics": [],
    "states": [],
    "layout": "glossary-word",
    "searchQuery": "Medicaid",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-26T12:00:00.000Z",
    "rawFields": null
  },
  {
    "recordType": "index",
    "contentId": "glossary:affordability-exemption",
    "title": "Affordability Exemption",
    "spanishTitle": "Exención de accesibilidad",
    "url": "https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordability-exemption/",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.healthcare.gov/api/index.json",
    "contentType": "glossary",
    "language": null,
    "excerpt": "An exemption that's needed when applying for Catastrophic coverage for people 30 years or older...",
    "content": null,
    "categories": ["glossary"],
    "tags": ["glossary"],
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-26T12:00:00.000Z"
  }
]

Pricing: how much does Healthcare.gov data cost?

Healthcare.gov Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing. Platform usage is included in the event prices.

Event	FREE	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD	PLATINUM / DIAMOND
Content record returned (one dataset row)	USD 0.002001	USD 0.00195	USD 0.0019	USD 0.0016	USD 0.0016
Actor start (per started GB of allocated memory)	USD 0.006251	USD 0.006094	USD 0.005938	USD 0.005	USD 0.005

Worked totals on the FREE tier at the default 256 MB memory (one start event):

• Default run, 25 records: 25 × USD 0.002001 + USD 0.006251 = USD 0.0563
• Maximum run, 500 records: 500 × USD 0.002001 + USD 0.006251 = USD 1.0068

A run that matches nothing charges only the start fee. OUTPUT reports estimatedResultEventCostUsd, estimatedStartEventCostUsd and estimatedTotalChargeUsd, computed from the live prices of your pricing tier, and the start message shows the maximum estimated charge the same way.

What are the limits?

• 500 records per run and 100 URLs per run in urls mode. Collection and index modes make one API request each, so typical runs finish in seconds.
• Index records carry titles, Spanish titles and summaries but never an HTML body. Pass a returned url to urls mode to fetch the full page.
• Failed URLs are skipped and listed in OUTPUT warnings; valid records from the same run are kept, and the run is marked PARTIAL.
• Language data follows the source: glossary and articles are English today, and state pages come in both languages.

FAQ

Do I need an API key or a Healthcare.gov account?

No. The content API is public. You only need an Apify account to run the Actor.

Can I get Spanish health-insurance terms?

Yes. Use index mode for Spanish titles and summaries of glossary terms, or the states collection with the language filter set to es.

Does it return plan prices or subsidy estimates?

No. Use Healthcare.gov Plan Scraper for Marketplace plans, premiums and cost-sharing.

Why did the blog collection return nothing?

The Healthcare.gov API returns empty blog and topics collections as of 2026-10-26. The run finishes with a warning in OUTPUT and no record charges.

Can I track changes to Healthcare.gov pages?

Yes. Schedule the same input daily or weekly and compare content or date values between datasets.

How do I keep records small?

Turn off Include HTML content for metadata and excerpts only, and leave Include raw API fields off.

Related Actors

Public health and government data from the same developer:

• Healthcare.gov Plan Scraper for ACA Marketplace plans and premiums
• Medicare Hospital Compare Scraper and CMS Nursing Home Ratings Scraper for provider quality data
• NCES School Lookup for NCES school records
• Chicago Building Violations Scraper for City of Chicago open data

Legal and compliance

Healthcare.gov Scraper reads public, unauthenticated content that Healthcare.gov publishes through its developer API. It does not log in or collect personal data. Healthcare.gov content changes over time and is not legal or medical advice; check the live page before relying on it, and follow Healthcare.gov's terms when you republish it.

Last verified: 2026-10-27