Sebelius doing her best Baghdad Bob impression.
Kathleen Sebelius: HealthCare.gov simple, user-friendly — USA Today
When the Health Insurance Marketplace opened last week, demand was so high, it exceeded even optimists’ expectations. On the first day alone, HealthCare.gov had nearly eight times more concurrent users than Medicare’s site (one of the federal government’s most highly trafficked) during open enrollment peak levels.
Many of our neighbors have been waiting years for affordable health insurance. Some have waited their entire lives. After enrolling in coverage last week, Daniel McNaughton of Florida declared: “I found a health insurance plan better than I have ever had for a price I can afford. … The (new law) was worth the wait.” Andrew Stryker of California told The Washington Post he would have “waited all day” to sign up for coverage that will save him more than $6,000.
Of course, nobody wants Americans to have to wait to sign up. Engineers are working day and night to make upgrades. We’re adding more servers to enable the system to handle larger loads. And we’re upgrading our software as well to make the system more efficient and enable it to handle higher volumes.
This work is delivering results. Wait times on HealthCare.gov are now 50% shorter, and more people are enrolling in affordable coverage.
At the same time, we have been upgrading the capacity at our 24/7 call center (800-318-2596). And consumers are finding that their calls are being answered quickly.