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.â€Â 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.
More: DrewM notes
Of course the real number that counts isn’t website hits, registrations, or even people who have enrolled in plans. No, the important number is how many young, healthy and stupid people have gotten a policy. No one seems to have heard of any of them actually existing. Without lots and lots of those types of customers, this whole thing comes crashing down.
My post was written before the Liar-in-Chief’s ACA infomercial this morning, and Ed Morrissey notes that he Blamed Republicans
Say what? The White House had three and a half years to get this ready, and it rolled out on the same day as the shutdown. The website issues existed long before the shutdown, and the Obama administration was well aware of them before the shutdown and decided to proceed anyway. Talk about spin.
That’s what Obama calls changing the way Washington works. And then he wonders why Republicans won’t work with him.
Even more: Byron York laughs at what Obama thinks are successes for O-care. Just 3 of the 13 human shields had successfully registered. Some are “prospective applicants”.
Of course it was the Repub’s fault. The people who didn’t want to block O-Care, or shutdown the gov’t (which didn’t happen), or talk bad about O-care during the last election cycle.
But, once again, Obama wants to blame someone who, were maybe not cheerleaders for, but certainly did not block his most signature socialist legislation. And yet, the Repubs will slink away and say, “oh kayyyyyy. he’s such a kidder.”
We again have a two-party system. No longer is it Repub and Democrat. It is now Liberal and Conservative. There are many so-called repubs and dems in the Liberal\Socialist party. There are very few Dems and Repubs in the Conservative party.
Oh, and then there’s the state-run media.
As bad as Obamacare is, it’s still more popular than the Tea Party.
I realize that conservatives don’t like to read, but here’s an essay by Dean Baker that will cause you lads to hiss like a vampire at a cross.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/after-budget-deal-time-to_b_4139360.html
But you guys do realize that you’ve won, right?
On global warming: there is no action.
On economy: we’re cutting spending when we need to continue to stimulate. No tax increases.
Healthcare: we’re enacting a substandard system to replace our even worse substandard system.
We are building the world that conservatives want!
Jeffery really has issues with the truth.
Of course there is action on climate change, Jeffery. You just don’t like the level or “intensity” of that action so you shut your eyes and scream “there is no change!”
On the economy, Jeffery believes that some government panel is better qualified to spend the money that you make rather than you spending it yourself. To that end, Jeffery wants to raise taxes – but not on everyone. He only wants to tax the so called “rich” because in his eyes, people who are poor and enslaved to the government are better off than those who are have the money and freedom to make their own life choices.
As to the health care, the US had one of the best outcome based systems in the world. Progressives like Jeffery couldn’t stand the US being the best so they started to implement rules, regulations and taxes which raised costs without increasing quality of services. Now they want Americans to believe that the government takeover of the health care system will defy all economic logic by taking in limited income and having unlimited expenditures. Jeffery just can’t bring himself to realize that despite the promise of lower costs, the premiums and deductables are higher now. People have lost choices in the marketplace. Doctors are bailing on the plan. Employers are cutting hours which means less income to people.
But we know Jeffery won’t deal with this because facts and liberals don’t go together.
J is like most liberals. Esp like Obama. He loves to see this country ruined. His whole purpose is to ruin that which is better on its own. Socialists like him cannot stand a people getting along nicely without a government telling them what to do, where to go, how to get there, and what to eat.
We got a depressed economy? Raise taxes and spend us into debt oblivion. Why not? Stealing from our grandchildren, piling debt upon those not alive, is perfectly OK.
If Socialist were capable of thinking, they’d realize that the gov’t can’t give away money in order to create money. The money has to come out of our pockets first, and then later, when debt is piled on, it will cost us more to pay that off. But, leaving freedom and money in the hands of entrepreneurs is an anathema to Socialists.
And I love how Obama likes to keep equating his gov’t OCare to a private business like Amazon or Apple. If I may say, …. it is apples and oranges. Amazon deals with traffic and you rarely have issues getting in. If so, they don’t lie about it and tell you up front. Amazon and Apple are not trying to take over your lives and tell you how to spend your money. They won’t throw you in jail or take your home should you not buy one of their products.
And, they won’t charge you for not buying their product when you were unable to access their website to even look at the available products. “You want to avoid the “tax” come spring? Then buy a health insurance plan. Or else. You say you can’t access the site? So what? We told you to buy a plan and you didn’t. Now pay up!”
Yeah, that’s very benevolent (sarc). Still sounds like blatant Socialism to me. Socialism is the disease of this world.
To that end, Jeffery wants to raise taxes – but not on everyone.
Hit it on the head, GC. That’s the way all these hardcore lefties think. And we have to also add “and not on themselves”. No matter what the issue, taxation, globull warming, etc, they always want Someone Else to feel the pain, but never themselves.