Slow Obamacare site repairs may limit coverage, savings

Yahoo! News ^ | 10/28/13 | Lewis Krauskopf and David Morgan - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

(Reuters) - If technical problems with the U.S. government's new healthcare website are not fixed in November, hundreds of thousands of Americans could lose easy access to lower-cost coverage, jeopardizing the Obama administration's goal of making affordable insurance broadly available in 2014.

Consumers in 36 states are relying on Healthcare.gov to qualify for tax subsidies that will reduce coverage costs under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which was expected to cover 7 million people next year alone through new private insurance marketplaces.

But if glitches in the marketplaces that operate chiefly online fail to be resolved, the government might have to take steps to reinforce low-tech alternatives such as call centers and paper applications that they are counting on already.

"If they can't enroll before the end of this year ... it's a serious burden on those people," said Joel Cantor, a public policy professor at Rutgers University who advises New Jersey on issues with the health reform law known as Obamacare.

"It thwarts the intent of the law to make insurance affordable," Cantor said.

The open enrollment period began on October 1 and lasts until the end of March, but people must enroll by December 15 for coverage starting next year, making it critical to fix the site for many of the 15 million who are not insured through their employers or the government and have individual policies instead.

Hundreds of thousands of people in this category are set to lose their current coverage because it does not cover certain benefits such as preventive care and mental health services as required by the law.

The policy terminations are opening President Barack Obama to more political attacks from Republicans because he repeatedly promised Americans they could keep their coverage if they liked it. ..

[NormsRevenge]

limit savings.. huh? is that what it was all about? really? lol

[YHAOS]

0bama didn’t know. No one told him.

[Doogle]

repairs will change the savings?....going for the short straws now....but the low info voter will understand...(wait till the don’t get tax refunds)

[blackdog]

So a failed website will result in maximized earnings to insurance companies selling a product that the federal law requires you to purchase?

Now what could possibly be the outcome of that situation?

[Ezekiel]

hundreds of thousands of Americans could lose easy access to lower-cost coverage, jeopardizing the Obama administration's goal of making affordable insurance broadly available in 2014.

Yup, still holding onto the lies. No surprise. The goal all along has been power for the sake of power, with the death of We the Infidels being an integral component of the plan.

[Kenton]

Slow Obamacare site repairs may limit coverage, savings

In other obvious news, a bright light is expected to appear on the eastern horizon beginning around dawn tomorrow morning and continuing throughout the afternoon.

[Libloather]

"If they can't enroll before the end of this year ... it's a serious burden on those people,"

So if everyone waits until March, there should be a discount? Why isn't this breaking news?

[catnipman]

“the government might have to take steps to reinforce low-tech alternatives such as call centers and paper applications that they are counting on already.”

It’s already well known that phone and paper applications won’t help because the data from them have to be entered into the same broken website no one else can use, and the same broken back-ends for determining edibility for subsidies are still just as broken. There are no magic back doors for paper and phone applications to bypass the broken oBamKare enrollment system.

This whole article is a load of Unicorn-poop since it is trying to pretend that such magic back doors exist.