Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Exchanges, Carriers and Ch-ch-changes

Just because the Federal Exchange is a hot, hacktastic mess, there's no reason to think that those run by individual states are in such sorry shape.

Right?

Ummmm:

"Maryland officials are planning a gradual rollout of the state's health insurance website to avoid problems"

Oh? And what kind of "problems" are we talking about?

Oh, those kinds of problems:

"... glitches can be worked out and the system won’t be overwhelmed with requests"

Yeah, one could see where that might be a problem. After all, there'll likely be tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Old Line State citizens eagerly shopping for their new - or replacement - ObamaPlans. Would be kind of embarrassing if they crashed the system.

Again.

Meanwhile, the folks behind the Green Mountain State Exchange have actually shut it down, albeit only temporarily [ed: uh-hunh]:

"Anyone clicking on the Vermont Health Connect website sees a message in bold black letters on a pale green screen that advises the site is down for maintenance."

Must be pretty heavy duty, since the closure is set to last for "weeks before health insurance customers would be able to resume buying plans, check accounts or pay electronically on Vermont Health Connect."

Interesting choice of words, that: "weeks."

It doesn't take long for "weeks" to become "a month." Or months.

And it's not just the folks Back East who are in for some potentially unpleasant surprises. FoIB Jeff M alerts us to this alarming development in The North Star State:

"PreferredOne, the insurer that sold nearly 60 percent of all private health plans on Minnesota's Obamacare exchange, on Tuesday said it would leave that marketplace."

Unsurprisingly, P1 offered the lowest rates on that Exchange.

No way there could be a connection between these two facts, though,

Right?
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