Exchange website swamped
Glitches stymie insurance shoppers
On opening day for the online insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act, a Memphis insurance broker as well as many other Tennesseans found frustration on the exchange website, and a Knoxville insurer found its innovative marketing plan halted by state government.
In Washington, President Barack Obama hailed Tuesday as a “historic day” and inaugurated new insurance exchanges to expand access for those without coverage.
The opportunity to access af-
fordable insurance is lifechanging for those who could not do so before the launch of the exchanges, now open for enrollment for six months starting Tuesday, Obama said.
“This is life- or-death stuff,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden. He said tens of thousands of Americans die each year for lack of health insurance and others go bankrupt. “Today we begin to free millions of our fellow Americans from that fear.”
As a sign of how eager Americans were to get started, Obama said more than 1 million people had visited the website before 7 a.m., exceeding expectations and, in some cases, slowing the computer systems.
Even a Memphis insurance broker promoting his services as “The Obamacare Answer Man” was stopped by a technical glitch when he tried to shop on the healthcare.gov website. That’s where insurance companies are selling polices to individuals and families in each state.
“I can tell that the system itself isn’t functioning yet,” Chuck Hudspeth said, adding that information about insurance company quotes normally available from industry sources wasn’t available either.
“The reality is we’re not ready to sell this stuff today,” said Hudspeth, who has established an obamaanswerman.com website for the family-run Hudspeth Benefits Group.
His experience wasn’t unique in Tennessee. The state Consumer Insurance Services Division “received numerous calls from Tennesseans across the state trying to enroll online with little to no success,” Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance spokeswoman Kate Abernathy said by e-mail.
Consumers who couldn’t shop on the first day for the online marketplace should be reminded that they have until March 31 to enroll, Abernathy said.
Meanwhile, Community Health Alliance — a nonprofit co-op insurer that announced that it will provide smartphones and Verizon voice, text and data plans to buyers of its individual polices — ran into an obstacle.
Abernathy said state regulators informed Community Health Alliance to stop advertising or including smartphones as part of its plans.
State law governing insurance companies bars the use of incentives or rewards unless they are disclosed in an insurance policy document as part of a voluntary wellness or health improvement program. Community Health Alliance did not include the smartphone plan in its policy documents and will have to approach the federal Department of Health and Human Services to change them, Abernathy said.
Community Health Alliance spokeswoman Ranee Randby said the firm, created with federal loans under the Affordable Care Act to stimulate competition among insurers, has been asked to provide additional information and is in the process of doing so.
Despite all the glitches, Obama urged Americans to call in or go online, promoting an online system that he said will offer more choices, more competition and lower prices. Obama acknowledged there would be glitches in rolling out the program but said that’s normal and the problems will be fixed. The Obama administration hopes to sign up 7 million people during the first year.