Healthcare.gov back end issues still complicate enrollment

Ten days after the Obama administration’s self-imposed deadline of Nov. 30 to fix technical glitches disrupting the Affordable Care Act’s website Healthcare.gov, customers assert problems still persist despite improvements. 

A team of 45 Affordable Care Act navigators spread across eight U.S. locations have helped users apply for and enroll in the federal government’s healthcare solution when shoppers found it too confusing. One of the overseers, Karen Egozi, said her team gave the site an 8 out of 10 score after finding some customers were having less difficulties, The New York Times reported. 

“I’m 80 percent satisfied,” Egozi told the newspaper. “I think it will be great when it’s 100 percent.”

Among some of the issues still plaguing the insurance exchange portal is the Spanish option for non-English speakers, who report that although parts of the site have been translated, instructions on how to set up an account are still in English, Kaiser Health News reported. 

Other problems appear to paint a double-edged sword: Users have reported an upturn in ease of navigating and understanding the site, but back-end issues that loses or fails to transmit submitted information negate the improved enrollment process. Yet others who have waited for months to apply for coverage through the ACA say they’re grateful to finally have insurance.

“I was hearing so much about the glitches in the system that I was worried that it wouldn’t work,” said Caroline Moseley, a Pennsylvania resident and ACA shopper to the Times. “It was a great experience. The site was running very smoothly. It took about 30 minutes tops.”