Obamacare site goes live, with some glitches

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washington Post:

Uninsured Americans around the country showed up at health centers and logged onto government Web sites Tuesday morning in hopes of being among the first to sign up for coverage under the president’s health-care law, but many ran into technical glitches that prevented them from enrolling.

 

Among them was Paula Thornhill, 31, who turned up at the Greater Prince William Community Health Center in Virginia, a couple of her children in tow. Center staff told her the Web site was down and that they could not yet enroll her or tell her how much it would cost. But Thornhill, who has no health insurance, remained hopeful that she would be able to find affordable coverage.

 

“I’m relieved that they did come out with this affordable health care,” she said, as her mother-in-law filled out some paper forms. “I’m relieved.”

 

Across the country, Web-based marketplaces that form the centerpiece of the sweeping health-care law known as Obamacare opened for business, a landmark moment for the embattled program that is at the heart of the standoff on Capitol Hill.

 

LIVE: Updates from Obamacare marketplaces around the country

 

In a speech in the Rose Garden, President Obama hailed the day as historic, as the marketplaces opened in spite of the government shutdown.

“This is life-or-death stuff,” Obama said. “Tens of thousands of Americans die each year just because they don’t have health insurance. Millions more live with the fear that they’ll go broke if they get sick. And today we begin to free millions of our fellow Americans from that fear.”

State and federal health officials reported strong interest in signing up, despite the problems and even though the plans do not kick in until Jan. 1. Applicants will have until March 31 to comply with the new requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a fine.

In New York, 2 million people had visited the state’s Web-based insurance marketplace by midday, officials there said. By 7 a.m., 1 million people had visited the federal web site, Healthcare.gov, which is the main enrollment site for 34 states, the president said.

In the District, DC Health Link, as the exchange is known, opened at 8 a.m. Within the first 90 minutes, about 1,500 DC residents had created accounts – more than exchange staff had anticipated, according to Richard Sorian, spokesman for the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority. Creating such a personal account is the first step toward shopping and, ultimately, buying a health plan.

But technical glitches held up a number of people, including West Virginia resident Jon Tucci, who supports Obama and the health-care law and wanted to enroll on insurance marketplace at the first moment possible.

“I’m pretty fluent on the Internet,” said Tucci, 60, who is self-employed in the oil and gas industry. “I’ve applied for a lot of things, and there are always glitches. But this was totally disappointing. I’m just really frustrated.”

Part of the problem may be that Tucci tried to sign up before 8 a.m., when the marketplace was slated to open. But as late as 11 a.m., many people who were trying to sign up on Healthcare. gov were getting error messages, including one warning the “system is down” and another saying that too many people are flooding the site.

________

 

Happy Onamacare Day...