Healthcare.gov tries to reboot

The main website for buying coverage under the federal health-insurance overhaul has itself gotten an overhaul, just in time for a rush of shoppers eager to have coverage in effect on Jan. 1. The site, HealthCare.gov, has undergone extensive work since its glitch-plagued Oct. 1 launch. The Obama administration pledged to improve its functioning by Nov. 30. In a statement on Dec. 3, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, the federal agency responsible for the site, lauded a new average page-response time of under one second, down from eight seconds at launch, and an "uptime"—when the system is functioning—of approximately 90%, compared with 42% in the past.