Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Exchanges Back In Business, With Only Limited Hiccups
The Seattle Times: Washington Healthplanfinder Back In Business
Washington Healthplanfinder, the state’s health insurance exchange website — is open for business this morning after staff worked overnight to fix a glitch in the system’s software for calculating 2015 tax credits. The problem was noticed during the site’s first hours of operation on Saturday morning, the first day of open enrollment for 2015 plans. The staff decided to take the site down for repairs at 10 a.m. In a statement, the exchange said the miscalculation affected fewer than 800 customers, including nearly 150 customers who scheduled payments based on that information. The exchange will be contacting those customers individually to notify them of the corrected figures. (Marshall, 11/16)
Minnesota Public Radio: Second MNsure Enrollment Begins Smoothly
MNsure officials say the launch of their second open enrollment period is going smoothly so far. The state health insurance exchange started taking applications for its second year at 8 a.m. Saturday. By noon, CEO Scott Leitz said, about 140 people had enrolled. (Nelson, 11/15)
WBUR: New Health Connector Website Launches
The new Health Connector website for Massachusetts launched successfully Saturday morning and was working as designed upon launch. (Paiste, 11/15)
WBUR: New Mass. Health Connector Website Works, But Some Enrollees Have Problems
State officials and the folks at the Massachusetts Health Connector call the first day of the new health insurance website a success. ... Roughly 1,600 people did not complete their application. They may still be weighing their plan options, they may have run out of time, or they may have had trouble using the site. And 1,713 people dialed the Connector’s call center number seeking help with their application. (Bebinger, 11/15)
The Baltimore Sun: Few Hiccups, Lots Of Face Time As Maryland Health Care Enrollment Begins
Esmeralda Banda had marked Saturday on her calendar and arranged to have a co-worker cover her shift at Chik-Fil-A. At 41, she figured it was time to get health care. "I'm getting older, I'm getting sick more, and I don't want to be paying as much out of pocket," the Catonsville resident said. Saturday was the first day of open enrollment in Maryland and around the nation on exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act for people who do not get health insurance through employers. In Maryland, residents received their first shot at gaining coverage at an enrollment fair in Glen Burnie, hosted by the state's nonprofit partner HealthCare Access Maryland. (Rector, 11/15)
The Oregonian: Kitzhaber Inserted Re-Election Consultants Into State Business Over Cover Oregon's Fate, Documents Show
Among Clyde Hamstreet's chores as Cover Oregon interim director last April 18 was to "work on coordination of proceedings" with a top re-election engineer of Gov. John Kitzhaber, Patricia McCaig. Hamstreet's 12 hours of work that day came shortly before two key Cover Oregon public meetings that the discussions concerned. His later invoice showed that besides McCaig, the "coordination" work involved the governor's chief of staff, Mike Bonetto, and the governor's health policy advisor, Sean Kolmer. (Budnick, 11/14)
The Chicago Sun-Times: Shoppers Trickle In As Health Insurance Open Enrollment Begins
There were no big crowds but also no major problems reported Saturday as people around Chicago and nationwide came out to sign up for a 2015 health insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act. Saturday was the first day of the new open-enrollment period under President Barack Obama’s health-care law. At Heartland Health Centers on Devon Avenue, Roglio Hernandez, 48, showed up at 8:30 a.m. to sign up for a 2015 health insurance plan. The Rogers Park resident had thought about getting insurance last year, after going without any for many years. But he said, “I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to wait a little longer.” (Thomas, 11/15)
News outlets also provided scene setters on the steps taken by certain states to address the problems that plagued their online insurance marketplaces last year -
The Associated Press: States Working To Fix Hobbled Health Care Websites
The Massachusetts website, designed by the same contractor that worked on the troubled federal website, performed so poorly it prompted a public apology from Gov. Deval Patrick and forced health care officials to adopt a series of manual workarounds, creating a backlog of more than 50,000 paper applications. Massachusetts was one of several states where the ambition of running their own health insurance marketplace inside a new federal system ran into a harsh reality. Some, like Oregon and Nevada, folded and decided to go with the federal exchange for the second round of open enrollment, which began Saturday. Others, like Maryland and Massachusetts, fired their technology contractors and are hoping for better results this time. It hasn't been cheap. (LeBanc, 11/16)
Fox News: States Hurry To Fix Healthcare Exchange Websites In New Enrollment Period
Several states whose health exchange websites failed their first test during last year's inaugural ObamaCare open enrollment period have adopted different approaches for the second round, which began Saturday. Some, like Oregon and Nevada, folded and decided to go with the federal exchange. Others, like Maryland and Massachusetts, fired their technology contractors and are hoping for better results this time. (11/17)
In related news, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on how Georgia's uninsured rate is impacted by the health law and the state's decision not to expand Medicaid -
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Rate Of Uninsured Stays Stubbornly High In Georgia
[Stacy] Soulimiotis is one of roughly 1.8 million Georgians under the age of 65 without health insurance, giving Georgia the third-highest rate of uninsured people in the nation, according to a Gallup poll. The number has remained stubbornly large despite the Affordable Care Act and the launch of its Health Insurance Marketplace last year. That’s in large part because the state opted not to expand Medicaid, the government health program for the poor. The marketplace also hasn’t had a substantial impact on the state’s uninsured rate. (Anderson, 11/14)
