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December 14, 2015 at 12:45 PM
The public health insurance exchange system has been having a quiet third open enrollment period, but HealthCare.gov and its sisters still seem to have the application-attracting power to crash enrollment websites and swamp call centers near key dates.
In states that use the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) HealthCare.gov enrollment sites, and in most states with state-run enrollment sites, the application deadline for coverage that starts Jan. 1 is Dec 15.
See also: HealthCare.gov sign-ups reach 2.84 million as deadline nears
Managers for Maryland Health Connection, Maryland’s state-based exchange, reported getting heavy turnout for in-person exchange enrollment events in Baltimore and Rockville, Md., Sunday. Meredith Hurston, a health care advocate who helped run the enrollment event in Baltimore, said more than 100 consumers showed up.
Consumers and brokers filled Twitter with posts about how long they had been trying to get past frozen enrollment site welcome screens and glitches, and how long they had waited on hold to try to speak with live humans at call centers.
One consumer resident tweeted, “1hr 12min on hold so far… hope my cell phone battery lasts.” Others said they were starting to like the exchange call centers’ hold music.
In New York, a resident tweeted, “Called TWICE and both times waited over an hour, then you hung up on me.”
B. Ronnell Nolan, a Louisiana-based broker who serves as president of Health Agents for America (HAFA), said the HealthCare.gov site was closed to consumers who were trying to enroll for the first time for at least two hours today. Consumers who were renewing coverage could log in and update their accounts, but newcomers could not get covered.
