Many uninsured have tried exchange sites

Many uninsured Americans said they had at least tried using one of the public exchange websites as of last week.

A majority of all early exchange users said the sites worked reasonably well.

Analysts at the Pew Research Center published data supporting those conclusions in a summary of results from a telephone survey of 1,503 U.S. adults conducted from Oct. 9 through Oct. 13, during the second week after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enrollment systems opened to the public.

About 22 percent of the 181 uninsured participants said they’d tried to use an exchange site.

Forty-two percent of the uninsured people and 19 percent of the insured people who haven’t yet visited an exchange site said they hope to soon.

The analysts found that 29 percent of all survey participants have the impression the exchange sites work well, and 46 percent have the impression the sites work poorly.