Healthcare Expert: Expect Confusion, Possible Delays in Insurance Exchanges

[Duaine]

With just weeks before enrollment for health insurance begins, a healthcare expert in California predicts online insurance marketplaces under ObamaCare will create confusion and won’t make it easy for individuals to sign up. In fact, a poll says most people in her state aren’t even aware of the marketplace soon to be available there.
Healthcare expert: Expect confusion, possible delays in insurance exchanges

 

[RayNY]

If the client calls I'm hearing about are any indication, expect a whole lot of people to be flabbergasted that there is no "free obamacare". Many people think you sign up online and get free insurance and healthcare. I'd wager, of the people that claim to know about the law, 99% of them don't know enough to know how wrong they are.

Everyone is an expert, until there is an expert in the room.

 

[benwrigh]

If the client calls I'm hearing about are any indication, expect a whole lot of people to be flabbergasted that there is no "free obamacare". Many people think you sign up online and get free insurance and healthcare. I'd wager, of the people that claim to know about the law, 99% of them don't know enough to know how wrong they are.

Everyone is an expert, until there is an expert in the room.

Exactly.

Part of the problem is that the media did not focus on the law itself, just the drama the politicians were creating around it. And then you throw in talks of death panels and other nonsense.

The other part is that there are a lot of people who a. Don't care about what is going on (until it actually happens) or b. Actually Trust the government (watch out for these people, they are either institutionalized or need to be )

 

[TxOnline]

I think it WILL be "free" to the lower-middle-class masses.

More and more average citizens are falling into that class these days.

 

[AllenChicago]

Thursday, September 5, 2013

It's not a good sign when Huffington Post is speaking negatively about the Government's I.T. people. They're having problems, and frustrating insurers with relatively minor issues, such as displaying plan designs properly on the Federal Exchange Testing Websites.


Excerpt from Article..describing a Q&A Conf Call between Carriers and CMS's technical teams on Friday 8/30/2013.

"But the IT call last Friday underlined the frustration of some carriers as they race to prepare for the launch.

Some insurance company representatives said they had asked repeatedly for errors to be corrected and still have numerous outstanding requests with the exchange help desk, according to people with knowledge of the discussion. Others said incorrect rates for certain services were on display.

After some two hours of such complaints, a federal IT representative on the call said: "I hear your frustration, and we're doing all we can.""

Link to HuffPost Article: Obamacare Health Insurance Exchange Website Still Plagued By Technical Glitches

It would seem that the STATE RUN exchanges are better prepared for October 1st launch than the 36 Federally Facilitated Exchanges (FFE) are.
ac

 

[RayNY]

It may seem that way, but I'm pretty sure most of the state-run exchanges aren't even far enough along to test the stuff that's going wrong in the FFE's. We haven't had confirmation of any state exchanges being complete or functioning, they just were smart enough to not leak out what they don't have working yet (which is basically everything).

 

[AllenChicago]

It may seem that way, but I'm pretty sure most of the state-run exchanges aren't even far enough along to test the stuff that's going wrong in the FFE's. We haven't had confirmation of any state exchanges being complete or functioning, they just were smart enough to not leak out what they don't have working yet (which is basically everything).

One test has been passed... the "connectivity" test.
Story: hCentive Successfully Completes Connectivity Testing with the Federally Facilitated Marketplace and State-Based Exchanges

Summary: When exchange techs touched the red wires together, they sparked! Connectivity Test Passed with Flying (sparkling) Colors.
ac

 

[RayNY]

If the Marketplaces were a house that was getting built from the ground up, the "connectivity test" would be equivalent to placing a phone call to someone willing to sell you land.

Now that the most basic item is checked off the list, time to tackle the other 20,000 items.