Kentucky and other states find success (Affordable Care Act) [View all]

[TomCADem]

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Source: Baltimore Sun

Kentucky officials say the simplicity of their system and strong oversight brought success. They used few graphics and limited text on the website so it wouldn't get bogged down and consumers wouldn't be overwhelmed, said Gwenda Bond, a spokeswoman for Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services, where the exchange is housed. They thought anonymous browsing would be popular, and as it turns out, that approach avoided the bottleneck plaguing other states.

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New York and California also are enrolling thousands of residents. Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said enrollment was "going strong," with 16,311 applications completed to cover 28,699 people as of Oct. 5.

The website for the New York State Department of Health experienced some slowness upon opening, with 2 million hits in an hour on its first day, but officials added servers in the following days to handle the load and said they haven't experienced any interruption in service. As of Friday, nearly 80,000 residents had enrolled.

But problems with the federal exchange's website means consumers face delays in obtaining coverage in 36 states, including Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Delaware officials don't expect to have any estimate of enrollment until mid-November, said Jill Fredel, spokeswoman for that state's health department.

Read more: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-10-12/news/bs-hs-compare-exchanges-20131012_1_maryland-health-connection-health-exchange-computer-problems

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Most stories follow the familiar meme of focusing on roll out glitches with Obamacare while ignoring notable examples of how the law can work and the fact that thousands of people are gaining access to healthcare. In other words, the issue is purely a question of implementation, rather than a fundamental problem with the law itself. Put another way, you do not disband the army just because someone loses a battle.