Tech Glitches Snarl HIX Opening Day

High traffic volume contributed to consumer complaints about problems with the federal health insurance exchange and several states operating their own marketplaces reported similar problems on launch day.

Nearly three million people visited the federal government's health insurance marketplace by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the first day of the six-month extended enrollment period, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

However technical glitches and the high volume of traffic on HealthCare.gov generated widespread complaints from residents in the 36 states served by the federal exchange who said they could not access the site. Those complaints and accompanying media reports about opening day snafus for the central component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prompted public assurances from President Barack Obama Tuesday that the glitches would be worked out in the coming hours and days.

"Like every new law, every new product rollout, there are going to be some glitches in the signup process along the way that we will fix. I've been saying this from the start," Obama said during a Rose Garden address. "For example, we found out that there have been times this morning where the site has been running more slowly than it normally will. The reason is because more than one million people visited healthcare.gov before 7:00 in the morning."

"To put that in context, there were five times more users in the marketplace this morning than have ever been on Medicare.gov at one time. That gives you a sense of how important this is to millions of Americans around the country, and that's a good thing. And we're going to be speeding things up in the next few hours to handle all this demand that exceeds anything that we had expected." 

The exchanges and other core components of the PPACA remain operational despite the government shutdown on Tuesday because they are funded through mandatory appropriations, HHS said. The president on Tuesday reaffirmed his rejection of demands by House Republicans who refuse to pass a stop-gap budget to keep the federal government open unless the administration agrees to delay by one year the implementation of the PPACA.

"I'll work with anybody who's got a serious idea to make the Affordable Care Act work better. I've said that repeatedly," Obama said. "But as long as I am president I will not give in to reckless demands by some in the Republican Party to deny affordable health insurance to millions of hardworking Americans."

In addition to the 2.8 million visits on the exchange website, HHS reported that by mid-afternoon another 81,000 people called an exchange hotline, and 60,000 requested live chats. However, HHS officials at an afternoon media teleconference repeatedly declined to tell reporters how many people had signed up for coverage, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2014 for people who enroll before mid-December.

"We certainly appreciate the question and obviously we are interested in that information too," Julie Bataille, communications director at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters. "I would just point to some historical experience getting data and what we have seen with other implementation efforts over time and we know that it takes some time to pull accurate data and information together. We will be able to do that for you as soon as we can and we will make sure to let you know what that schedule will be."

In addition to problems with the federal exchange, several states operating their own exchanges also reported problems related to high volumes and technical glitches.

CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner sat in on the half-hour long media call and got an earful from journalists across from across the country who related the frustrations of people trying to access the exchanges in their states. Like the president, Tavenner reminded the reporters that the glitches were to be expected given the magnitude of the undertaking.

"I would just remind you that this is day one of the process. This is a marathon, not a sprint," Tavenner said.