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| HealthCare.gov opens without major problems for second enrollment period | HealthCare.gov opens without major problems for second enrollment period |
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| HealthCare.gov and online state insurance marketplaces in more than a dozen states opened Saturday morning for a second year of enrollment and a fresh test of whether the government can persuade millions of uninsured Americans to buy health plans. | HealthCare.gov and online state insurance marketplaces in more than a dozen states opened Saturday morning for a second year of enrollment and a fresh test of whether the government can persuade millions of uninsured Americans to buy health plans. |
| From anecdotal reports around the country, the early hours of the sign-up period appeared devoid of the computer troubles that frustrated both insurance-seekers and the Obama administration when the federal insurance exchange first debuted 13 months ago. Instead, the looming questions are whether federal officials and a small army of enrollment workers and volunteers deployed in communities around the nation will be able to manage two tasks simultaneously: convincing 7.1 million people already insured through the year-old marketplaces that they should return to shop for a health plan that might be better for them for the coming year, and somehow coaxing more than 20 million Americans to buy coverage — who were eligible for it last time but have not yet signed up. | From anecdotal reports around the country, the early hours of the sign-up period appeared devoid of the computer troubles that frustrated both insurance-seekers and the Obama administration when the federal insurance exchange first debuted 13 months ago. Instead, the looming questions are whether federal officials and a small army of enrollment workers and volunteers deployed in communities around the nation will be able to manage two tasks simultaneously: convincing 7.1 million people already insured through the year-old marketplaces that they should return to shop for a health plan that might be better for them for the coming year, and somehow coaxing more than 20 million Americans to buy coverage — who were eligible for it last time but have not yet signed up. |
| Early reports suggested that there were more new potential customers arriving at enrollment sites than people renewing their coverage. | Early reports suggested that there were more new potential customers arriving at enrollment sites than people renewing their coverage. |
| The White House sought Saturday morning to inject momentum into the sign-up period, which is half as long as the six-month enrollment window the first time. “This window won’t stay open forever,” President Obama, in Australia, said in his weekly radio address. “You only have three months to shop for plans, so it’s worth starting right away. And it might make a big difference for your family’s bottom line.” | The White House sought Saturday morning to inject momentum into the sign-up period, which is half as long as the six-month enrollment window the first time. “This window won’t stay open forever,” President Obama, in Australia, said in his weekly radio address. “You only have three months to shop for plans, so it’s worth starting right away. And it might make a big difference for your family’s bottom line.” |
| At about noon, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell stopped in at a large community health center in Northern Virginia’s Prince William County, a jurisdiction with a relatively large proportion of residents who remain uninsured. “We are up, and we are running,” Burwell told several dozen families and enrollment workers gathered in a brightly lit clinic waiting room festooned with balloons. | |
| Burwell announced that, during the first eight hours since HealthCare.gov opened for enrollments shortly after 1 a.m., some 23,000 people around the country had completed applications for health plans for the coming year. In comparison, during the entire first day of enrollment in 2014, with the computer system marred by defects, six people nationwide managed to enroll. | |
| Burwell also said that 1.2 million people had gone “window shopping” — which allowed consumers to look at but not buy plans — on HealthCare.gov since Sunday night. When HealthCare.gov opened last year, consumers could not explore health plans without going through the computer’s system’s registration process — a feature that federal health officials changed for this year. | Burwell also said that 1.2 million people had gone “window shopping” — which allowed consumers to look at but not buy plans — on HealthCare.gov since Sunday night. When HealthCare.gov opened last year, consumers could not explore health plans without going through the computer’s system’s registration process — a feature that federal health officials changed for this year. |
| With tables of cookies and face-painting for children, workers at the Greater Prince William Community Health Center in Manassas welcomed people such as Fernando Cabana, 42. He said he had not focused on insurance during the first sign-up period a year ago but on Saturday came with his wife and their 6-year-old daughter. Cabana is uninsured — the kind of person the administration wants to attract to health plans available under the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 law that created the insurance marketplaces that reopened on Saturday. | |
| A construction worker, he used to have a family plan costing $800 per month in premiums, through United Healthcare. But he found he could save nearly $400 a month if he dropped coverage for himself and kept it just for his wife and child. He said he hoped that he could find a better plan for all of them through the federal health exchange. | A construction worker, he used to have a family plan costing $800 per month in premiums, through United Healthcare. But he found he could save nearly $400 a month if he dropped coverage for himself and kept it just for his wife and child. He said he hoped that he could find a better plan for all of them through the federal health exchange. |
| “I’ve been waiting . . . for this day,” said Cabana, adding that he was not planning to enroll on the first day but was eager “at least to get answers.” Virginia is relying on the federal exchange, while Maryland and the District are operating their own marketplaces. DC Health Link opened Saturday, and the Maryland Health Connection, which was rebuilt to try to correct major computer problems, is opening in stages between Saturday and Wednesday. | |
| At the federal call center, where enrollment specialists offered consumers advice on how to enroll in a health plan, there were minor waits in the morning — 15 minutes just before 8:30 a.m. By about noon, there wasn’t a wait. | At the federal call center, where enrollment specialists offered consumers advice on how to enroll in a health plan, there were minor waits in the morning — 15 minutes just before 8:30 a.m. By about noon, there wasn’t a wait. |
| The scene in Manassas resembled those in many U.S. cities and town on Saturdays, where enrollment fairs were being held in public libraries, hospital lobbies and other sites. Some were busier than others. At Columbus Metropolitan Library in Ohio, just half the people who had made appointments to meet with enrollment helpers had showed up by late morning, according to Zachary Reat, of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, an organization that received a sizable federal grant to help coordinate enrollment activities around the state. “We’re not as swamped as we would have hoped to be,” Reat said, though enrollment was more brisk there and at other sites around Ohio by early afternoon. | |
| Lines were long even before the doors opened at an enrollment drop-in center in Austin, run by the local nonprofit group Foundation Communities in an old storefront at a rundown shopping mall. Texas is a state with a large number of uninsured Latino voters. It was a particular focus of the administration’s campaign last year to coax people to sign up for coverage — and it will be again. | |
| “It’s good. The word has gotten out,” said Elizabeth Colvin, director of Insure Central Texas, a program of Foundation Communities that helped some 15,000 people during the first open enrollment last year. For this year, the group has recruited not only Spanish speakers among its enrollment workers — last year, more than half its enrollees were Latino — but also ones who speak Chinese, Iraqi, Arabic, Vietnamese and French. | |
| Still, language was not the only potential barrier at times. David and Maria Medrano of Austin came to the mall enrollment center hoping to buy a plan but were disappointed for the second year in a row. As before, their income was too low to qualify for the subsidies the health-care law provides to many to buy coverage through the insurance exchange. | |
| Two years ago, David Medrano, 61, shattered both of his heels and ankles on the job as an independent construction contractor and his wife had to quit her job to help him. | |
| “We hawked everything to survive,” he said. | |
| The couple has been relying on community health services and sliding pay scales, but it hasn’t been enough to alleviate their worries, the couple said. And now he has been diagnosed with cancer, beginning chemotherapy and radiation a few days ago. | |
| On Saturday, they made an appointment for next week to get help in finding out whether they are eligible for Medicaid. | On Saturday, they made an appointment for next week to get help in finding out whether they are eligible for Medicaid. |
| In Massachusetts on Saturday, officials were determined to make up for a debacle last year. The federal health-care law was largely modeled on a law enacted in Massachusetts six years ago, when Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, was governor. At first, the Massachusetts insurance marketplace, known as the Health Connector, worked well. But last year, its computer program collapsed during open enrollment, creating an uproar of finger-pointing. | |
| The state scrapped the computer program, switched vendors and rolled out new software for Saturday’s enrollment window. “We’ve tested it up, down and sideways. We’re confident the system is going to work,” said Jason Lefferts, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Health Connector. | |
| The Massachusetts Connector sent out a quarter-million mailings, advertised extensively, and is making 70,000 phone calls during the enrollment period. A local supermarket chain, Market Basket, is dropping fliers in customers’ grocery bags. Connector officials barnstormed through the state in the past month to offer apologies for the past and pleas to trust them this time. | |
| “It should be remarkably different this year,” said Lefferts on the eve of the enrollment opening. | “It should be remarkably different this year,” said Lefferts on the eve of the enrollment opening. |
| To help guarantee that, Health Care For All, a nonprofit in the state, will knock on 200,000 doors to recruit sign-ups. | |
| The emphasis is on keeping people enrolled, rather than finding new uninsured to sign up, in part because Massachusetts has proportionately the fewest uninsured residents in the country, about 3 percent. | The emphasis is on keeping people enrolled, rather than finding new uninsured to sign up, in part because Massachusetts has proportionately the fewest uninsured residents in the country, about 3 percent. |
| On Saturday, a home health worker, an immigrant from Brazil, sat on the edge of her chair, gripping a plastic envelope filled with papers, at the community center in Cambridge, Mass. An adviser, Leonilde Gomes, eased her into the first barrage of questions on the insurance application. | |
| “The first thing we are going to do is create an account,” Gomes explained carefully. | “The first thing we are going to do is create an account,” Gomes explained carefully. |
| “Name?” | “Name?” |
| “Monica Souza.” | “Monica Souza.” |
| “Name of best friend?” | “Name of best friend?” |
| “Favorite color?” | “Favorite color?” |
| Souza, 44, paused. “It’s to make sure you are identified,” Gomes said softly. “It’s for security.” | Souza, 44, paused. “It’s to make sure you are identified,” Gomes said softly. “It’s for security.” |
| Souza was in the offices of the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers in a busy section of Cambridge that reflects the tide of immigration. The warren of offices is surrounded by the Pino Bros. Tattoo shop, Ribeiro DeSoius Insurance, Fernandes Fish Market and Grilles “World’s Best Pickles.” | |
| Souza is uninsured. “I tried to get it before. I don’t know why I couldn’t. There were all sorts of questions,” she explained. She had made an appointment at the community center on the very first day of insurance enrollment. | Souza is uninsured. “I tried to get it before. I don’t know why I couldn’t. There were all sorts of questions,” she explained. She had made an appointment at the community center on the very first day of insurance enrollment. |
| “Everybody needs health insurance,” she explained. “You don’t think so, until you do.” | |
| Spencer Hsu in Manassas, Doug Struck in Boston and Karen Brooks Harper in Austin contributed to this report. | Spencer Hsu in Manassas, Doug Struck in Boston and Karen Brooks Harper in Austin contributed to this report. |
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