Pirate's Cove

As Obamacare ramps up with huge numbers moved to Medicaid and Medicare, along with those who will obtain insurance through the Exchanges (eventually), consumers should be prepared for lots and lots of failed expectations. Unless your expectation is poor service, poor care, byzantine dealings in order to use your insurance, lots of out of pocket costs, denial of some treatments and medicines, and long waits for care

(HHS) Unfortunately, the experience on HealthCare.gov has been frustrating for many Americans. Some have had trouble creating accounts and logging in to the site, while others have received confusing error messages, or had to wait for slow page loads or forms that failed to respond in a timely fashion. The initial consumer experience of HealthCare.gov has not lived up to the expectations of the American people. We are committed to doing better.

It’s The Government. We don’t expect any of it to do better.

In response, we have made a number of improvements to the account service. Initially, we implemented a virtual “waiting room,” but many found this experience to be confusing. We continued to add more capacity in order to meet demand and execute software fixes to address the sign up and log in issues, stabilizing those parts of the service and allowing us to remove the virtual “waiting room.” Today, more and more individuals are successfully creating accounts, logging in, and moving on to apply for coverage and shop for plans. We’re proud of these quick improvements, but we know there’s still more work to be done. We will continue to conduct regular maintenance nearly every night to improve the experience.

They should have left the waiting rooms in, that way those with Obamacare can get used to them. As for regular maintenance, HHS is supposedly bringing in the “best and brightest” to fix the website. I wonder how much it will cost the American People to fix this $634 million boondoggle of a website?

(Politico) The changes will give people more information and options up front without having to wrestle with the flawed online process. It gives more information about health plan choices and provides clearer instructions on how to download a paper application, get through by telephone or find someone to assist in person.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to make improvements every day, new content is being featured on HealthCare.gov in response to user feedback. It’s now easier than ever to preview plan information, access a downloadable application form and find in-person help in local communities,” HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in a statement released late Sunday evening.

The changes allow people to see health plans and prices in their region without having to jump over online hurdles that have aggravated millions of people trying to get on the Healthcare.gov site, the portal for health-care coverage in the 36 states where HHS is running the insurance exchanges.

Those are things that they initially wanted to hide till they had everyone’s personal information. And they have updated. Down at the bottom of healthcare.gov you can find pre-subsidized rates without giving more than very basic information. Unfortuantely, once you get to the plans you only get the costs, not what the plans actually cover. What are the details. What the network is. Copays. Deductibles. In other words, what you’re paying for.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Bummer: The Initial Consumer Experience Of Healthcare.gov Didn’t Live Up To Expectations »

The administration is trumpeting this as a Big Win..

RT this–>FACT: Nearly a half million #Obamacare applications have been filed: http://t.co/brbc34mIvd

— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) October 20, 2013

…but won’t say how many have actually obtained insurance

(ABC News) Last week, President Barack Obama gathered some of his top advisers in the Oval Office to discuss the problem-plagued rollout of his health care legislation. He told his team the administration had to own up to the fact that there were no excuses for not having the health care website ready to operate on Day One.

The admonition from a frustrated president came amid the embarrassing start to sign-ups for the health care insurance exchanges. The president is expected to address the cascade of computer problems Monday during an event at the White House.

Oh, good, another campaign event, we’re he’ll surely engage in some Blamestorming of Republicans for the problems.

Administration officials say more than 476,000 health insurance applications have been filed through federal and state exchanges. The figures mark the most detailed measure yet of the problem-plagued rollout of the insurance market place.

However, the officials continue to refuse to say how many people have actually enrolled in the insurance markets. And without enrollment figures, it’s unclear whether the program is on track to reach the 7 million people projected by the Congressional Budget Office to gain coverage during the six-month sign-up period.

If the numbers were great, you know they’d be trumpeting them. And, look, we all knew that once the ACA marketplaces were open, people would sign up. Heck, under the law, they have to, or they’ll be fine/taxed. And many do want affordable health insurance (not that most will be able to get it, especially considering the out of pocket costs). The Politico makes a good point

“It strikes me as a very positive number, especially given how hard it was to get through the process on healthcare.gov and in some states. Presumably it would have been far higher if not for glitches and hiccups,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But he cautioned, “scorekeepers have always expected that early enrollees would be those who are sickest and most expensive, since they’ve been excluded from insurance until now. That is likely even more true given how hard the application process has been so far. It will be important to get the websites working smoothly to entice the young and healthy fence-sitters.”

Without the healthy, especially the young and healthy, enrolling, the system collapses under the ever growing weight of massive costs to the insurers and government.

Read: So Far, Just 476K “Affordable” Care Act Applications Filed »