A little over a month after the government opened enrollment to the Affordable Care Act’s health exchange, glitches still continue to plague heathcare.gov, frustrating those attempting to sign up and politicians of all ideological backgrounds.
The website was quickly overwhelmed by millions of people exploring and attempting to sign up for insurance after it opened Oct. 1. The site subsequently suffered glitches, making it difficult for many to sign up for the exchange.
“I do not think that the website was designed to handle the type of traffic they have seen,” Andrew Gallan, an assistant professor at DePaul and expert in healthcare marketing, said.
Many are now wondering if the rollout was premature. While President Obama was told that the website was ready, many within the administration were skeptical.
“It would be hard-pressed to think of big organizations rolling out massive campaigns tied to a website that wouldn’t have vetted their website better than the government,” Gallan said. “It’s really awful. Thinking back, there are just standard protocols that website designers just think as fundamental. This is not a new science. This is something that we know how to do, but a lot of the basics were ignored.”
Anger over the website has largely focused on Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. Her organization is in charge of implementing the law. This week, she took the blame for the website disaster while testifying before Congress.
“You deserve better. I apologize. I’m accountable to you for fixing these problems,” Sebelius said, referring to the American people.
In addition to the website problems, CBS News reported that over 2 million people will be dropped from their existing coverage as a result of the law. While many of them can get insurance on the exchange, it breaks a promise that the president repeatedly made: that people can stay on their existing plan if they do not want to switch.
While the glitches and dropped coverage are hurting the popularity of the law, there are some steps the administration could take to improve its image.
“A lot of times, (good provisions of the law) are lost in the shouting back and forth,” Gallan said. “And one thing I think they can do is, in terms of marketing, really think about who are the groups and constituents who are really going to benefit from this and how can they produce targeted messages to those segments.”
Insurance coverage on the exchange takes effect Jan. 1, 2014, while the mandate requiring individuals to have insurance would kick in later that year.