Exchange rollout earns bad reviews

October 10, 2013 at 10:07 AM
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange websites are drawing lots of rotten tomatoes in early reviews, but plenty of people are checking them out.

Seven percent of Americans report that somebody in their household has tried to sign up for insurance through the health care exchanges, according to an AP-GfK poll.

While that's a small percentage, it could represent more than 20 million people.

Three-fourths of those who tried to sign up reported problems, though, and that's reflected in the underwhelming reviews.

Overall, just 7 percent of Americans say the rollout of the health exchanges has gone well. Far more deem it a flop.

Among those who've actually tested out the system, three-quarters of those polled said they've experienced problems trying to sign up. Only about 1 in 10 succeeded in buying health insurance.

Overall, the poll found, 40 percent of Americans said the launch of the insurance markets hasn't gone well, 20 percent said it's gone somewhat well and 30 percent didn't know what to say. Just 7 percent said the launch had gone "very well" or "somewhat well."

Even among those who support PPACA, just 19 percent think the rollout has gone extremely well or very well. Forty percent say it's gone somewhat well, and 18 percent think not too well or not well at all.

Thirty-six states are using the federal government's exchange site, HealthCare.gov, and others are running their own exchange sites.

White House senior communications adviser Tara McGuinness said the administration is working around the clock "to improve the consumer experience," and she stressed that the poll was taken just six days into a six-month campaign to educate people about their options.

She added, "The overwhelming attention from millions of Americans checking out HealthCare.gov during the first few days is a good testament to the interest of Americans in new affordable health options."

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Oct. 3-7 using KnowledgePanel, GfK's probability-based online panel. It involved online interviews with 1,227 adults. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents.

For results among the 76 respondents who attempted to use health insurance markets, the margin of error is plus or minus 13.5 percentage points.

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