HealthCare.gov launched on October 1, despite the fact that
load testing days before the launch uncovered serious problems. The site crashed with just a few hundred users. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services invited about 10 insurers to test the Web site and provide advise, and about a month before the full site launched, that group advised CMS to scale back the launch to a pilot in just one region or handful of states. But the October 1 launch date was set in stone.
The administration is bringing in a raft of "additional experts and specialists drawn from within government, our contractors, and industry, including veterans of top Silicon Valley companies," as well as a new private sector management expert and former CEO to deal with the plagued site. It's needed. They've got a tight deadline to get the system working and the seven million enrollments targeted, and especially getting the younger, healthier cohort signed up. Those who've been without health insurance and really need it because of pre-existing conditions will sign up, one way or another.
To keep some perspective though, there's this:
And that was with no sabotage efforts from Democrats. A good part of the roll-out issues for HealthCare.gov can be directly attributed to the
political opposition from Republicans: the refusal of dozens of Republican governors and legislatures to create their own exchanges; the refusal of the Republican House to provide the necessary funding; and the delays caused by legal challenges.
There's also an encouraging new Pew survey of people who have actually used the site: it's not as bad as the news reports would suggest: "they reported a generally positive experience, with 56 percent saying the exchange website was very easy or fairly easy to use, compared to 40 percent who found it difficult." And there's the fact that awareness of the insurance exchanges has increased from 51 percent last month to 65 percent. That's the silver lining of bad press—it's still press.