From the Baltimore Sun: Gov. Martin O'Malley said Wednesday that he wants the most glaring glitches in the state's health insurance exchange website resolved by mid-December, potentially allowing thousands more Marylanders to sign up for policies before the end of the year.
The governor announced the goal a day after Maryland Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein told state lawmakers it is unclear when the site would be entirely free of glitches — an answer that drew criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.
Speaking at his first formal news conference on the state's rocky rollout of the key piece of the Affordable Care Act, the governor acknowledged that the website has frustrated thousands of residents even though the state's implementation of the law had initially been held up as a national model.
This is a little more complex than going on Amazon and ordering a book," O'Malley said in an apparent reference to President Barack Obama's earlier statements comparing the exchanges to the online retailer. "This launch did not go as we had planned, and we have been fixing it ever since," O'Malley said.
Despite widespread issues with marylandhealthconnection.gov — including some that also occurred on exchanges run by the federal government — O'Malley said there has been significant progress and believes state officials are narrowing the scope of the problem.
A total of 3,024 individuals have enrolled in private insurance plans on the Maryland Health Connection, according to state figures released Wednesday — boosting enrollment by more than a third in a one-week period. More than 65,000 people have created accounts, which are needed to browse plans, and there have been more than 480,000 unique visitors....
The administration's original goal was to sign up 150,000 people, less than a fifth of the state's uninsured, for private coverage by early March.Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/health-care/bs-md-omalley-maryland-marketplace-20131127,0,109215.story#ixzz2lvxT89uw
Shouldn't the goal been 100% of the uninsured being signed u?
So, only 3,000 people have enrolled but not paid for their health plans in Maryland, a state of 5,900,000 or about .05% of the state's population.
That's just pathetic.
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