The nation's state and federal healthcare insurance exchanges are gradually overcoming a variety of technical growing pains but continue to face an uphill battle on one essential measure of success: closing the sale. In the weeks since repairs began on the federal government's online health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov has made big strides in improving the purchasing experience for visitors. The tech problems that dogged the site when it launched Oct. 1 -- long page-loading delays, mysterious error messages, and site crashes from too much volume -- have mostly been vanquished.
