White House Admits Problems With Health Care Rollout, Commits to Doing a Better Job

Author: Tracy Morley, XpertHR Legal Editor

October 23, 2013

The online Health Insurance Marketplace (also known as the "Marketplace" or "Exchange"), a critical component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Barack Obama's signature health care law, has been plagued with problems since its debut on October 1.

Prior to the October 1 launch, the Marketplace was touted as a quick and easy way for individuals to comparison shop, apply for and purchase health insurance. Instead, individuals attempting to shop for and enroll in coverage, as required by the ACA's individual mandate, have experienced problems logging in to the website, have received error messages and other deficiencies that prevent successful enrollment.

According to a blog from the US Department of Health and Human Services (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."

On October 21, President Obama acknowledged the problems with the website at a White House Rose Garden event. Obama stated "And there's no sugarcoating it. The website has been too slow; people have been getting stuck during the application process." He further added, "No one is madder about the website than I am which means it's going to get fixed."

The HHS blog lays out the issues that need to be fixed which are related to software coding problems and discusses solutions to the problem. Specifically, "Our team is bringing in some of the best and brightest from both inside and outside government to scrub in with the team and help improve HealthCare.gov. We're also putting in place tools and processes to aggressively monitor and identify parts of HealthCare.gov where individuals are encountering errors or having difficulty using the site, so we can prioritize and fix them."

According to White House officials, it is too early to consider delaying the individual mandate.