Now the subsidies have been sentenced to limbo as the second round of enrollment descended. That's when the latest question got answered: How much did carriers have to tweak their premiums a year in?

And, perhaps not all that surprisingly, the answers were all over the map — literally and figuratively. In short, most premium estimates suggested increases anywhere between 3 percent to 10 percent on the individual exchange market.

But Avalere Health, a Beltway consulting firm, found that silver plans stood to jump in price the most, "by 10 percent on average in 2015," as reported by our own Kathryn Mayer.

It's worth pointing out that the public's favorite exchange plans last year were the silver ones with 38 percent of all exchange enrollees picking up the lowest-cost silver plan available.

A tale of two states

Of course, it also depends which state you're taking about. New York — with its own exchange — stands in stark contrast to some place like Texas, which has basked in its poster child status eschewing both the state exchange and expanded Medicaid.

"We're seeing a lot of different things," explains New York broker Susan Combs, president of Combs & Co. "In New York, the increases haven't been so bad, I haven't seen one over 12 percent, and we've had some instances where the premium went down in terms of the small group space."

But, Combs points out the individual market's seen a sea change if not in premiums increase, at least in terms of how the attitudes of clients — and prospects — have changed.

"On the individual market, this was new to New York brokers as of 2014 and the phone is non-stop and we actually charge marketing and consulting fees for this since 90 percent of the carriers don't pay brokers in New York," Combs explains.

"We did this last year but it was 50/50 on if people would pay a fee or take their chances. Now 95 percent of people calling us are more than happy to pay an hourly fee because they found out the hard way what happens when you don't know what you are really buying."

In New York then, at least, the struggles of enrollment season, with its changing deadlines, is at least accompanied by increased opportunities for brokers who still have time left in their day after helping their group clients.

Texas, on the other hand, with its high number of uninsured, and a less-than-cooperative state government (at least as far as PPACA is concerned), is like a different country.

Broker Tanya Boyd says she gets phone calls like this all the time: "Tanya, can my rate really be going from $424 to $1,259, because I told myself that if you didn't answer the phone to confirm, I'd just take a shot of tequila and hit submit."

Boyd was quick to respond, "I told her I'd like to take a shot of tequila right along with her, because, yes….rates are right. Welcome to the Affordable Care Act."

Another client complained not only of rates that had doubled since the year before, but which included must less coverage for that higher price tag.

"And we thought last year was bad," Boyd admits. "I don't like to put too much negativity on paper, so this is really hard. Each day I look for humor in all of the madness. Having a sense of humor and clinging on to those few 'positive' outcomes is key. But more than once I've mentioned this year's open enrollment period may make me lose my religion."

Of course, all of this takes place within a much smaller window.

"As if a shorter open enrollment period isn't stressful enough," Boyd adds, "let's add on several hundred clients losing their policies and having 30 days to shop for a replacement. Ah, and then there's all of the group accounts who either migrated to a Dec. 1 effective date to delay higher costs of [PPACA], or those 20 percent that moved over to [PPACA] Jan. 1 because it saved them money. Take your whole life and imagine cramming it into…maybe three months."

And that's when things break down for brokers scrambling to do everything at once.

"Overflowing inboxes, nonstop voicemails, wondering if you can ever reply to everyone, afraid of things falling through the cracks, delivering nothing but bad news to most people, skyrocketing insurance premiums, explaining Obamacare over and over and over," Boyd recalls. "Busiest time of a health insurance agent's life is right now. Thirteen-hour days and then you're still not done. We're tapped and stressed. We want to help our clients and we feel helpless."

But what's frustrating is the unpredictable nature of the premiums she and her broker colleagues have seen so far.

"The lack of credibility and trust the rate increases have caused? Clients grasping at anything they can find, desperation has become prevalent. Mad at the system, trying to find another solution when there isn't one, wondering why their rate went up $300 a month when they didn't even have any claims?"

But Boyd and her Lone Star State colleagues aren't alone. For former broker of the year Aaron Davis, who operates out of the northeast, it's been a long enrollment season, as well.

"Our experience, and that of every other broker I've spoken to in our region, is that this was the most challenging renewal season we've ever endured," Davis says. "The biggest issue for us was a major carrier changing their renewal rating methodology just before releasing Jan. 1 renewals. In all the cases we saw (ours and others), the new methodology resulted in significantly higher rate increases. One of our fully insured experience-rated clients with 220 enrolled employees saw their rate action increase from 11.5 percent (under the old methodology) to over 29 percent. Only through extensive negotiations and employee contributions modeling were we able to lower the effective increase to 12 percent."

And then there are the brokers, like Combs, pursuing some variation of the fee model. Take Rob Heller, for instance, with Brown and Brown in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.

"In the Central Pennsylvania market we have had huge rate increases — many times over 50 percent," Heller recalls. "That's caused a number of our clients to say 'I'm done with health care,' and are sending employees to the exchange. We've come up with a strategy that allows us to go into an employer and be the conduit to sign people up for the exchange. Through the combination of commissions from the exchange, adding voluntary products and charging a fee we have in many cases been able to increase revenue from what we were making before."