Politics
HealthCare.gov website overhauled – crucial weekend as subscribers begin to access service
(Reuters) – Americans are getting their first look on Saturday at whether a five-week, round-the-clock technology overhaul has made it easier to use the troubled website that is the backbone of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare overhaul.
The White House had pledged that HealthCare.gov, which has been plagued by errors, outages, and slow speeds since its disastrous October 1 launch – would be working for most people this weekend.
Fixing the crisis, one of the biggest of Obama’s presidency, has enormous political stakes for the administration and its Democratic allies who are heading into congressional elections next year.
The administration said on Saturday that 90 percent of website users can now create an account on the system, which is meant to help millions of people sign up for new health insurance plans.
But officials did not immediately provide information on whether a flurry of recent hardware and software upgrades has fixed other parts of the system to the point where a similar percentage of users could complete their enrollment.
Officials have been careful to say that the overhauled site won’t work for everyone and could still be overwhelmed by traffic at times.
“There will be moments, most likely in the middle of the day, where demand will be greater than that capacity,” Jeffrey Zients, the Obama confidante tasked with leading the rescue mission, told reporters earlier this week.
His tech team created a new “queuing” feature that, in peak periods, will suggest a better time to return to the site. The administration has also directed users to visit it during off-peak hours in the morning, evening and weekend.
