A double whammy of new HealthCare.gov glitches shadowed the final day of Obamacare sign-up, causing confusion and delay just as the White House tried to push procrastinatorsover an enrollment finish line that may be far closer to the 7 million mark than seemed possible even a week ago.
HealthCare.gov was down for six hours early Monday morning. Then it was up. Then it activated its “virtual waiting room.” Then it blocked newcomers trying to create accounts. Then it was working again, with officials reporting more than 1.2 million visitors by mid-day.
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Those technical problems, a flashback to the federal website’s botched launchlast October, weren’t the focus the White House wanted as it tried to spur more Americans to join the late enrollment surge. The intensity and tone of the White House messaging over the last days evoked an increasingly confident turnout call on the eve of a close election.
(Also on POLITICO: The Obamacare enthusiasm gap)
Administration officials again hit the road and the airwaves Monday, touting the benefits of subsidized health insurance and celebrating the clear sign-up momentum. Vice President Joe Biden appeared on the Rachael Ray Show, talking health care and skin care. “I think everyone is going to be surprised and pleased at how this has turned out,” the ever-garrulous vice president said in pre-recorded comments that sounded discordant against the sudden headlines about website woes.
Enrollment had surpassed the revised 6 million threshold as of last Wednesday, and call center activity, website traffic and lines at in-person help centers around the country suggested the numbers were soaring. California alone passed 1.2 million, its state exchange said.
The HealthCare.gov glitches Monday were nowhere near as severe as those of October. These were repaired in hours; those lasted two devastating months when the fate of the law was in the balance. Still, it wasn’t what the administration wanted for the final narrative, and whether or how much the latest technical troubles suppressed or discouraged last-minute shoppers may never be known.
The Department of Health and Human Services had already announced that people who hit obstacles completing their signup could get extra time and assistance beyond the March 31 cut-off. Agency officials haven’t given an estimate of how many people might avail themselves of that “special enrollment period,” but given the website problems Monday, the number could be vast.
(WATCH: Confusion, little information on Obamacare in Mississippi)
“I know there’s been a lot of focus on glitches—but there has been a remarkable story since the dark days of October and November,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said at his daily briefing, as a monitor behind him showed photographs of long sign-up lines in places like Alabama, Texas and Florida, red states where the governors have been hostile to the president’s health care law.
Republicans focused on the big picture: not what might be wrong with the website but what in their view is wrong with the law.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that “millions of Americans [are] facing higher premiums, cancelled plans and the loss of doctors and hospitals they liked as a result of this law.” Once again, he called for it to be scrapped.
Since the “tech surge” repaired the HealthCare.gov mess around Thanksgiving, the portal has largely accommodated waves of traffic. Outages have been fairly infrequent and relatively short.
(CARTOONS: Matt Wuerker on Obamacare)
But the finale was a reminder that the tech infrastructure had flaws from the start.
“Should they have been prepared? Of course. But the root problem is the way they built the house was wrong,” said Clay Johnson, a former Presidential Innovation Fellow and CEO of the Department of Better Technology. He likened it to building a ball park and not testing it before the World Series. “So now they have the unenviable job of putting the stadium together while the game is going on and people are trying to watch it,” he said.
HHS said the problems were addressed.
HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said early Monday afternoon that the issue preventing new users from signing up had been resolved as of about 1:30 p.m. “There was an issue earlier this p.m. with users creating new accounts — it has now been resolved and all functionality is back up,” she tweeted shortly before 2 p.m.
Carney declined to predict that sign-ups would exceed 7 million, but he ventured a total “significantly above” 6 million, with a mix of young, healthy people that would ensure the law functions well in the future.
The last-minute problems are likely to postpone getting a true, complete picture of how many people have signed up, how many have paid, how many are getting for the first time and how many had insurance before.
Several states are also giving people extra time, some a brief extension for people who can document their problems, others a more open-ended grace period. State enrollment has varied, not just based on politics but on the mechanics of the exchange. Maryland never got its exchange working; California blew by its targets.
The end of enrollment marks just one phase in the Obamacare wars. With millions gaining coverage through the federal- and state-run exchanges, Medicaid or by staying on their parents’ plan until age 26, Democrats can show the health care law’s benefits to voters before the 2014 mid-term elections.
But Republicans, buoyed by recent polls reaffirming Obamacare’s unpopularity and signs that candidates running against the law are gaining steam, plan to make it the centerpiece of their own sales pitch to Americans through November. The law, they argue, is driving up the cost of care, destabilizing the economy and forcing millions off their existing health plans.
Jennifer Haberkorn and Jessica Meyers contributed to this report.
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