Response to Obamacare website problems

[cleduc]

I've seen a number of articles or heard a number of reports in the media like this:
Obamacare Website Failure Threatens Health Coverage For Millions Of Americans
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/obamacare-train-wreck_n_4118041.html


I'm not entirely convinced and feel the problem is overstated.

From the healthcare.gov website:
"How do I apply for Marketplace coverage?"
https://www.healthcare.gov/how-do-i-apply-for-marketplace-coverage/

They provide four options:
1. Online
2. By paper application
3. By phone
or
4. with an in-person assister

So if the website is causing a big problem with the online application, it isn't causing a big problem for the other three options - I've checked them out.

I think with those other options available, there's a lot more whining than there needs to be.

It's new and there are bound to be some glitches.

So one can explore the other options if they encounter problems with the online approach. Responsible media ought to be passing that along if they're truly concerned with this issue.

[doc03]

1. I have heard Obamacare web site stories all day today starting with

Morning Joe . They have been on every hourly radio newscast all day. Since the budget fight is over seems the msm is going to hammer
Obamacare. The msm can only focus on one story at a time, this week it's how bad Obamacare is. Maybe the budget fight was a
good thing, they forgot about Obamacare for two whole weeks.

[kydo]

4. yep thats the meme from the bagger noise machines

But as the OP basically states - helping people with public service information is not what media outlets do these days. Which is true. And they are lazy because most of the media is just repeating the same story over and over. I must have seen that clip on morning blow 5 or 6 times. Then there was that crap on fox that sean whatever his name is aired as proof the aca doesn't work - of course it was totally debunked later.

[Blanks]

6. There are very few advertisers anymore...

Insurance companies seem to be the main television advertiser (besides car manufacturers and car sales ads). I'm sure they have a lot of control over what goes on TV.

[B2G]

2. So once the navigator has your info,

Either by phone or via paper, what are they supposed to do with it if the system doesn't work? Do they make 10 phone calls instead of relying on system interfaces? And then contact you again with plans and subsidies you qualify for? Then you call them back after you decide and they manually enroll you?

They're gonna need a whole lot more people quick.

[solarhydrocan]

3. People should make sure they are dealing with a real "navigator"

because there are sure to be some impostors.

[frazzled]

5. If you've never been insured, I'd suggest getting an in-person assister

Or even if you have been insured before. There are a lot of options here, and they must be matched to specific personal needs, both medical and economic.

I remember when the Medicare Prescription Drug plan went into effect. My mother-in-law was in her 90s and in a nursing home, and we had to choose a plan for her (she was not of sound mind at the time). It was utterly confusing to us--and we are relatively intelligent people with post-graduate degrees and competency on the Internet. We needed to discuss the options with a social worker at the nursing home who helped us to pick a plan that would cover her specific medications (different insurers covered different brands of medication). It was of enormous help to us. It not only saved time but a lot of mental anguish about whether we were doing the right thing.

There's no need to rush on this. No insurance policy is going to start before January 1. You have until December 15 to choose one if you want it to start then. Otherwise, you have all the way to March to enroll. It's important to pick the right plan for YOU and your needs. A trained person can really help to make that decision.

[penultimate]

7. That headline is a bit hyperbolic and I don't think it's accurate either.

But I think it's silly to down play the massive screw ups on the design of that site... The problems are more than just glitches or even normal growing pains. They screwed up and didn't do it right. They should have done it right, but they dropped the ball. It's better now, but it's still messed up and it was very messed up when it first launched.

That being said, they are fixing it and that's a good thing. Also, there are other options for getting up and running so it wasn't a failure.

[Zorra]

8. It's not overstated. It's a nightmare for many people, including me.

I gave up on the Healthcare.gov website and requested a paper application, which is due in the mail early next week.

With all the errors and lack of reliability I have already encountered, I am not at all optimistic that my application will actually arrive.

[cleduc]

9. How did you find out about requesting the paper application?

[kestrel91316]

11. The paper application is easily downloaded from the site.

Although our "site" here is CoveredCA, the CA portal, so YMMV.

[BlueStreak]

20. We can rationalize all we want, but at this point, enrollments are WAAAAAY behind schedule

The Feds won't say how many they have enrolled. The best estimates NATIONWIDE are less than 100,000.

Yes, the open enrollment runs a few months into the new year, but as a practical matter, most people who don't do it by the December 15 cutoff (for coverage 1/1/2014) are not going enroll at all. There are 10 weeks from Oct 1 to Dec 15. The idea is to enroll 25 million people. That means that the quota per week needs to be something over 2 million enrollments PER WEEK.

And we have actually done 100,000 in 3 weeks.

Some ramp-up is to be expected, but we are nowhere near the pace that is going to successful.

Or to look at it another way, let's say we can do 200,000 a week (6 times the current pace) the rest of the way. There are about 22 weeks to the end of open enrollment. That would be a total of only 4.5 million enrollees. If that happens, this will be a major failure.

Bottom line, very quickly, things have to start moving about 10 times faster than they currently are moving. That is not impossible, but anybody who wants to just brush this off is just not thinking very clearly.

[JDPriestly]

10. K&R. Thanks.

[Rstrstx]

12. FINALLY got the website to work

It's still buggy but I finally got all the way through from application to selection of insurance plans (haven't "checked out" yet though since I want to look them over more carefully). Mind you I had create about 8 or 9 extra email accounts and new screen names to get it done but evidently if you run into a "glitch" you can start all over again as long as you use a new email and a new screen name, even if you've already entered your social, DOB, etc. and had an application succeed (I had to throw the first successful application out because it didn't include a subsidy).

The site is surely going to get a lot of bad press for the next week or two but it has definitely improved since I first started trying on Oct 2.

[doc03]

13. I signed up for SS on line, it worked fine no problems. Why is it they couldn't

make a web site for the ACA?

[hay rick]

14. Download forms links.

Posted this before: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3818455

[handmade34]

15. thanks for that

website had problems first few days... so I just printed out online application and sent it in... easy!!

[llmart]

16. I heard on PBS News Hour tonight....

that they've revamped the website to allow people to shop anonymously first without creating a login and that should relieve some of the problems. I think there are many people who just want to look first and may not even end up applying online.

I got all the way through to the ID verification and it got hung up and I was sent a message telling me to upload a driver's license. Now it says "application pending" when I log in. Initially I just wanted to shop and would have like to just go on the site for that, but now that I have a valid login and application, I'll just wait. If all else fails, I'll call.

[JDPriestly]

23. If I were eligible, I would want to shop first and then buy after considering my choices.

I always shop that way. Makes good sense.

[bhikkhu]

17. Very true. Oregon has completed processing plenty of paper applications

(50K or so), but the website is still not working. It does allow me to go in and use the calculator and look at the costs and details of all the plans, based on my income, which is enough at this point. I'll still wait for the online deal to start working, and its nice to know exactly what to expect.

Side-note - making 30k, supporting two kids, I'm right on the border of qualifying for full medicare coverage (basically OHP in my state, that's been around for awhile). But I think I'll go for a subsidized private insurance anyway. For about $75 a month I can get a silver plan, with a $250 per-person deductible and a $1000 per year total OOP cap! Which is pretty amazing...I just have to check to make sure where we can go for things.

A co-worker who had been up in arms about the $200 a month he was going to have to pay based on the old calculator (which didn't have individual plans listed yet) will actually be able to get himself and his wife insured for $50 a month. Everybody here is pretty surprised about how affordable it will be. My boss who pays $900 a month for his family can get much better coverage for $300-500 a month...and so forth. How they have things listed on the exchange - you can see and compare in a few minutes what would have taken a week to put together before.

[grantcart]

18. Also they are saying the insurance companies can't work with the data from Marketplace.

I sure hope that they don't tell my insurance company.

I have gotten 4 letters from them, everything is exactly what the Marketplace said.

Pay the premium and I have insurance.

[BlueStreak]

21. Who said that?

By law, the insurance companies are REQUIRED to offer all the plans that are in the exchange, whether or not the customer uses the exchange. You have to use the exchange to get the subsidies, but you can buy directly from the insurance companies if you aren't seeking a subsidy.

[grantcart]

22. To be clear they are saying that after people pick the plan they are getting

corrupted information from a defective ACA website.

You are correct about the exchange necessary for the subsidies and we got $ 317 a month.

[Bolo Boffin]

19. Also, delete cookies and browser history if you have problems at the site.

I did and it fixed every issue I was having.