The government working with the insurance companies to work around the Obamacare web site means that the government is going to waive the fee that they are charging the insurance companies to use the site. That fee is passed to consumers in their premiums.
So, if the government waives the 3.75% fee do the consumers who do not use the web site get a commensurate deduction in premiums?
Thing is, people are not going to spend hours going around to insurers websites.
It really is not going to happen. In fact, I will go as far to say they will not be going to healthcare.gov in droves, fixed or not.
Not likely. The job of the web site still needs to be done by someone or something. The Web site would be the cheapest way to give the customer all the relevant options. It would be a self-service site. However now insurers need to find people to answer phones - and those cannot be random people off the street, they need to be sales people with knowledge of the industry and of the specific products that this insurer offers. The insurers will need to round up all retired sales workers, probably. If anything, this "solution" would cost 10x more.