Posted on 10/11/2013 1:01:09 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had a front-row view of the problems plaguing the website that the government established to allow people to shop for health insurance under Obamacare.
Sebelius and Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney were at an enrollment and education event on Thursday at Heinz Field to promote Healthcare.gov, but people who showed up encountered problems in signing up for coverage on the website.
Unable to handle heavy online traffic and riddled with technical glitches, the website has been a source of criticism of the Obama administration and the new Affordable Care Act since its start on Oct. 1.
Sebelius, who is making similar trips to cities across the country to spread the word about the website, told the audience of about 100 people that Healthcare.gov was “open for business.”
“Believe me, we had some early glitches,” said Sebelius, who was introduced by Rooney, a backer of the law. “But it's getting better every day.”
At the back of the room, it was a different story. About 20 people armed with laptops and certified by the government to sign up people for coverage were meeting with uninsured people, answering questions and fruitlessly trying to access the website.
LaKesha Lowry, 41, came to the event to find out about her health insurance options. But the North Side resident said she was not able to access the site, even with the help of a certified application counselor.
“It said, ‘Try again later,' ” Lowry said.
Asked about the ongoing problems with the website and the fact that people at a government enrollment event couldn't sign up, Sebelius told reporters that she didn't know what problems were affecting service at Heinz Field. The government has made hardware and software upgrades to improve the site, she said, and it is working for many people.
“We're working to ensure it's easy to use,” Sebelius said, noting that more than 13 million people have visited the site, an “extraordinary” level of traffic.
Technicians, she said, are “working around the clock to add capacity.”
Since Healthcare.gov's shopping function went live 10 days ago — the start of a six-month open enrollment period — it has been overwhelmed with traffic. That's a fact that the law's supporters have said shows how much demand there is for new health insurance options. Critics have said the problems show the law should be delayed or scrapped.
In recent days, technical glitches with the site's design have prevented people from creating accounts and accessing the shopping function.
Ted Couperus, a Gibsonia resident who spoke to the Tribune-Review on Monday about his trouble with the website, was still experiencing problems on Thursday.
“I have tried logging in over a dozen times since Tuesday at all hours day and night with no success,” he wrote in an email. “I have continued trying to log into my account at Healthcare.gov, always with the same result. The system seems to accept my user name and password, but gives me a blank white screen.”
The website is being used in Pennsylvania and 35 other states that decided to let the federal government handle the task rather than do it themselves. States that set up their own online marketplaces seem to be faring better.
The state of New York announced on Tuesday that more than 40,000 of its residents have signed up.
HHS officials so far have declined to release enrollment numbers for the federal website, saying they plan to provide monthly updates. It was unclear how many people — if any — were able to enroll at Thursday's event.
you think the irs scandal is bad?...wait til the dole out who gets to get their arthritic knee fixed....
"I would just say it's been mischaracterized all along," said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a House freshman and former small-business owner whose North Carolina district, once held by Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler, is 91 percent white and includes some of the state's most conservative communities.
"There are a lot of guys here who have nothing to do with the Tea Party that are supporting this effort because people back home are asking them to do that," Meadows told the Washington Examiner.
Democrats and many Republicans see Meadows as a primary architect of the GOP's fight against any government spending bill that funds Obamacare.
It was Meadows who in August circulated a letter to fellow Republicans asking them to join him in demanding that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., "affirmatively defund" the health care law in any spending measure, even a short-term, temporary bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown.
Eighty House Republicans signed on, forming the core of the group that influenced Boehner and his leadership team to dig in and insist that the health care law be limited or delayed in the budget bill. To pressure their leaders, the group simply refused to support any spending bill that didn't limit Obamacare in some way.
The group has also been influenced heavily by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, who are leading the opposition to Obamacare in the Senate and who have pressured conservative House GOP members to stand firm............................"
ummhmmm..."extraordinary" level of traffic...a few thousand morons pounding the refresh button after 404 errors does not constitute web hits. Phoney baloney stats trying to prop up a phoney baloney Care system. Government Motors probably sold more Volts than Government health plans. All from the secret Acme Sales Corp.
foot note: In keeping with progressive feminist protocols preferring hyphenated last names signifying partnership and not ownership please refer to her as Kathleen Gilligan-Sebelius. Gilligan is an accepted short version as an homage to the stranded crew member of the Minnow, another infamous shipwreck..
“these problems with the obamanation are PLANNED...they want it to be a mess....then the “good” democrats can come sweeping in and strap us with universal health care .....”
Not as long as we hold the House.
"And, they are implementing new rules and regulations we just pulled out of our ass as I speak to you now."
"This site IS working! You people are just too stupid to use it."
The Drudge Report had clocked more than 45 million page views in a single day. I guess the government can't manage to play in the big leagues like that.
Has she no personal shame at all? Or is this supposed to be a comedy? Going out and encouraging citizens to use a system that she knows does not work? Does Sebelius not have a choice in this? Or is she being blackmailed to act stupidly?
***
Arthritic knee? Heaven help you if you need cancer treatment or heart surgery. Particularly, if you are over 50, you will be deemed unproductive and not worth the cost.
But some young chippy who can't keep her pants on, will get that abortion.
Sebelius is the glitch witch.
AND THIS MESS COST SO MUCH ($500,000,000 for an inoperable website)!
Built by the same people who say we're being force into this system to make healthcare cheaper and more accessible.
What more do we need to see?????????
The Obamacare glitches are the least of the problems
1) 29 1/2 Hour Work Week imposed on America. Many full time workers get put on part time and get more than a 25% pay cut. Those who refuse are laid off.
2) Workers in small time businesses with just over 50 employees are scared. The 51st 52nd and so forth are getting laid off.
3) Many with low cost high deductible insurance cannot afford Obamacares price tag and will simply be without insurance.
4) But the biggest problem for the Democrats/Progressives is when the you find out they have to pay a fine and find they cannot afford the Affordable Health Care Act's regulations.
DOH!
Really? How's that all working out?
She's a democRAT isn't she?
Great post! AND the Left doesn’t want all this information hitting the fan all at once.
But it is because Senator Cruz, Senator Lee and others stepped up and ripped back the curtain.
The American people are witnessing which side of the aisle forced Obamacare on the country and which side did not have one vote for it.
This is a shining moment to push on.
When I ran a company, bigger than the one I now run that is just me, I would inquire and look and mess with stuff. I would get the feel of what was underway. I wanted understanding of our output.
Has Sebelius ever logged on or attempted to log on or mess with the web site? Prior to the October 1 curtain up, did she not have any curiosity, no urge to get to use what had been created? Did she not have any pride in her or her people’s work to make her want to relish the touch and feel of their creation?
The same is true of Oabma. Why was he not bugging the developers constantly to let him mess with the creation. Has he ever even seen the web site?
He is a total failure. Absolute with no redeeming qualities......failure.
So is Kathleen, the incompetent total boob
The Obamacare glitches are the least of the problems
1) 29 1/2 Hour Work Week imposed on America. Many full time workers get put on part time and get more than a 25% pay cut. Those who refuse are laid off.
2) Workers in small time businesses with just over 50 employees are scared. The 51st 52nd and so forth are getting laid off.
3) Many with low cost high deductible insurance cannot afford Obamacare's price tag and will simply be without insurance.
4) But the biggest problem for the Democrats/Progressives is when the youth find out they have to pay a fine and find they cannot afford the Affordable Health Care Act's regulations. DOH!
I've come to the conclusion that these people aren't acting ....they're just plain stupid. We've got an equal opportunity president who pretended to be black and to be any nationality was to his advantage to get ahead. What does he do? Well, it seems like he chooses people by other things than ability, intelligence, or intergrity.
That might be the subliminal thing why so many people liked Ted Cruz's 21 hours. The guy has a brain.
Our president thinks he's the Wizard of Oz...that he can just grant people courage or a brain or what ever attribute they lack. Cruz pulled the curtain open, so to speak.
JMHO
Knowing and now seeing how terrible Obamacare has been rolled out, why would anyone go along with a universal, or single-payer plan? How do you make the argument that completely government-run, is better than partly government regulated and managed?
Not in Hawaii. Last I heard not one person had yet signed up due to technical glitches.
EXCLUSIVE: Just 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications during the website’s first week..
Daily Mail UK ^ | October 10, 2013 | David Martosko
Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013 1:59:33 PM by CivilWarBrewing
•Obamacare’s main signup engine attracted just 6,200 new customers on its launch day and 51,000 after the first week
•At the same rate, the 6-month open enrollment period would sign up just 2 million Americans, including 14 states and D.C., which have their own insurance exchanges
•The Congressional Budget Office says Obamacare needs at least 7 million customers to stay afloat financially
•Numerous Obama administration officials have denied seeing any enrollment figures at all
•MailOnline’s sources are two Health and Human Services workers who have access to the data as it’s crunched
•Texas congressman says anemic national enrollment numbers are ‘roughly the population of a small town in my district’
Just 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications during the first week the Healthcare.gov website was online, according to two sources inside the Department of Health and Human Services who gave MailOnline an exclusive look at the earliest enrollment numbers.
The career civil servants, who process data inside the agency, confirmed:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3077348/posts
Only “hundreds” have been able to sign up for a health care plan at the Obamacare websites. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Okay now we will try the landline # 1-800-318-2596 listed above or 1-800-318-2596 = 1-800-FAU-CKYO.
“Not as long as we hold the House.
Really? How’s that all working out?”
So far so good. And I think we will continue to hold the House.
100 people....ROTFLOL
Just another facade in the days of the current administration.
~~~Has she no personal shame at all?~~~
I should think not. Much like Nancy Pelosi.
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