For health exchange navigators, enrollment frustrations continue

Nov 8 2013

Workers helping people enroll in policies through the health law's new online insurance marketplaces are still finding website problems and it's causing concerns. 

Bloomberg: Obamacare Website Frustrations Persist As Deadline Looms
In Palm Beach, Florida, a legal aid group charged with helping enroll people in health insurance through the Obamacare website celebrated after their first signup at the end of last week. … Even as top federal officials testify in Senate hearings that healthcare.gov is improving weekly, workers on the front lines in the drive to enroll people say the website remains inconsistent, balky and crash-prone (Pettypiece and Wayne, 11/7).

Marketplace: Obamacare Limbo Land For Health Care Navigators
In Camden, navigators are resorting to paper applications. It's straightforward, says [navigator Toni] Cohen. But she's worried. "The biggest concern I have of the last five weeks, is that the people who have filled out applications have not heard anything back yet," says Cohen. One reason: paper applications must be run through the same web portal as the online ones (Gorenstein, 11/6).

Meanwhile, Minnesota exchange officials provide their first-month tallies -  

Minnesota Public Radio: MNsure Signups Reach 11,000 In First Month
Nearly 11,000 people have signed up for health coverage through the online health insurance marketplace since it opened Oct. 1, MNsure officials said today. Of the 10,940 who are in the process of enrolling in coverage, most will wind up in government plans, either MinnesotaCare or Medical Assistance. About 1,800 are in the process of enrolling in commercial health plans (Stawicki, 11/6).

Pioneer Press: MNsure's Low Premiums Mean Many Minnesotans Won't Qualify For Tax Credits
Health insurance premiums for 2014 are so low in many parts of Minnesota that some consumers aren't qualifying for tax credits through the state's new health insurance exchange (Snowbeck, 11/6).