U.S.
President Barack Obama is expected to address a cascade of problems with HealthCare.gov — the website where Americans can submit applications for health insurance to exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — during a White House event Monday.
The site's first three weeks have been marred by a slew of glitches; some users say they've had trouble creating and using logins, for example, and others have experienced a variety of error messages and slow page loads.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Sunday that it has already updated the site multiple times with new code, which it says has allowed "more and more individuals (to) successfully (create) accounts, (log) in and (move) on to apply for coverage and shop for plans."
"We're proud of these quick improvements, but we know there's still more work to be done. We will continue to conduct regular maintenance nearly every night to improve the experience."
HHS also said that it "is bringing in some of the best and brightest from both inside and outside the government to scrub in with the team and help improve HealthCare.gov."
Officials from the Obama administration, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, did not say how many workers were being added.
Officials did say staffing has been increased at call centers by about 50 percent. As problems persist on the federally run website, the administration is encouraging more people to sign up for insurance over the phone.
The rough rollout of the ACA exchanges has been a black eye for Obama, who invested significant time and political capital in getting the law passed during his first term.
The officials say more than 476,000 health insurance applications have been filed through federal and state exchanges. The figures mark the most detailed measure yet of the problem-plagued rollout.
However, officials continue to refuse to say how many people have actually enrolled in insurance plans. And without enrollment figures, it's unclear whether the program is on track to reach the 7 million people projected by the Congressional Budget Office to gain coverage during the six-month sign-up period.
The White House says it intends to release the first enrollment totals from the federal and state-run markets in mid-November.
Despite widespread problems, the White House has yet to fully explain what went wrong with the online system consumers have been using in attempts to sign up for coverage.
Administration officials initially blamed a high volume of interest from ordinary Americans for the frozen screens that many people encountered. Since then, they have also acknowledged problems with software and some elements of the system's design.
Interest in the insurance markets appears to continue to be high. Officials said about 19 million people have visited the site as of Friday night.
Of those 476,000 applications, just over half have been from the 36 states where the federal government is taking the lead in running the markets. The rest of the applications have come from the 14 states running their own markets, along with Washington, D.C.
Americans seeking health coverage through the ACA must fill out applications before selecting a specific plan. The forms require personal information, including income figures that are used to calculate any subsidies the applicant may qualify for. More than one person can be included on an application.
Obama will address the technical problems Monday morning during an event in the Rose Garden, according to the White House. Officials said the president finds the glitches unacceptable and will outline steps the administration is taking to address the troubles.
He will be joined during the event by people who have enrolled in insurance programs through the exchanges.
An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press showed that the administration projected nearly a half million people would enroll for the insurance markets during the first month.
Officials say they expect enrollments to be heavier toward the end of the six-month sign-up window.
Problems with the rollout were largely overshadowed by Republican efforts to force changes to the health care law in exchange for funding the government. That effort failed, and the government reopened last week with "Obamacare" intact.
Some Republicans are now calling for the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The White House says it has complete confidence in her. House Republicans have scheduled a hearing next week to look into the rollout problems.
White House allies say they're confident the problems are being addressed.
"There's no question the marketplace website needs some improvement," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., one of the architects of the law. "The administration needs to fix the computer bugs, and I'm confident that they're working around the clock to fix the problems."
Al Jazeera and The Associated Press
Error
Sorry, your comment was not saved due to a technical problem. Please try again later or using a different browser.