I love watching this thing fail miserably, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.
Via WaPo:
Delayed once already, a critical function of the federal government’s new health insurance marketplace for small-businesses has been pushed back again.
Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is in charge of the federal exchange, revealed a revised timeline for the small-business exchange during a congressional hearing on Tuesday, stating that employers will not be able to actually enroll in plans online until the end of next month.
“Let me ask you specifically, will the SHOP Website for small businesses that was delayed be fully functional during November?” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) asked Tavenner during the hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee.
“Yes, we will institute the SHOP component at the end of November,” Tavenner responded. She later added that the Spanish version of the federal exchange site, which was postponed at the same time as the small-business enrollment function, would be open “by the end of November,” too.
On Sept. 26, Health and Human Services officials first announced that, for the first month after the exchanges opened on Oct. 1, small-business owners hoping to enroll in new plans on the federal site would not be able to complete the process online. Instead, they would have to to mail or fax documents into the department for processing.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carner expanded on the details of the delay during a press briefing later that afternoon, specifying that small-business owners “will be able to apply for the tax credits beginning October 1st, and they will be able to enroll, if you will, for these programs beginning November 1st.”