John Green of the vlogbrothers decided to take a stab at signing up for healthcare using the new ACA website and compare it to a similar process for signing up on a private healthcare website. Conclusion: while there were more technical difficulties in doing it on healthcare.gov, it was still faster and less personally intrusive than doing it on the private healthcare site.
We've all heard the complaints about how difficult the web site is. But this is the first time I've seen someone try ask the second question: how bad is it compared to what people used to have to do.
(usual caveats about personal stories not necessarily being indicative of general levels of service.)