Healthcare Exchange Sign-up – Yet Another Update & Yet Another Apparent Failure

Yesterday afternoon, after the announcements over the weekend by the Obama administration that many of the issues with the Federal healthcare exchange website had been fixed, my client once again tried to submit an application.  In my prior posts I have described our experiences in unsuccessfully attempting to submit an application via web site on numerous occasions since October 22.

I can report the following:

1) There is a new option to delete prior applications, and a new recommendation to delete any saved applications and start over if you were experiencing errors in the past.  We were unexcited about deleting our existing application and starting over, but after the site once again failed to accept the existing application, we deleted the application and submitted a new application from scratch.

2) The system appeared to accept the new application, with the last screen indicating that once my client’s identity was verified within 24 hours, his application would be processed.  However, the screen that presented this information was distorted, and when we return to the main screen (“My Applications & Coverage”) it shows the same “In progress” status that was listed after all our prior unsuccessful attempts to submit an application.  More than 24 hours have passed, so I believe our application once again failed to submit.

3) The press reports that the web site response is now less than one second.  We found that the site continued to take 5 to 10 seconds to save each answer presented.

So, I can report no change in our experience–the system continues to not work for us.  Given the looming deadline of December 23 to sign up for coverage that begins January 1, we are going to surrender later this week and attempt to submit an application by telephone.  Very disappointing to say the least.