Obamacare 2015 open enrollment kick off deemed a success despite a few glitches

Despite this weekend’s news accounts that the kick off of the Obamacare 2015 open enrollment was going relatively smoothly around the U.S., there were still a few technical glitches and problems reported by a few of the state-run health exchanges.

The USA Today reported that in Colorado, plans that include cost-sharing subsidies weren’t showing up for broker Louise Norris, who also got frequent error messages as she navigated the site. At least she was able to enroll customers. Brokers at the Health Insurance Store of Louisiana in Baton Rouge weren’t able to do that until early afternoon. Owner Will Chapman says none of the 10 agents or their clients could log into accounts until about 1 p.m. CT Nov. 15.

“The vast majority of users are having a smooth experience during the first day of Open Enrollment on HealthCare.gov as they fill out applications, browse and enroll in plans,” Health and Human Services spokesman Aaron Albright said in an e-mailed statement published by the USA Today. “We expect to experience the normal issues that any other complicated technology project does upon launch and have seen a small number so far.”

Three USA Today staff members created accounts in Virginia on the morning of Nov. 15. One of the three was blocked from logging in, just as the agents in Louisiana experienced. After a five-minute wait on hold, a call center employee unlocked the account but warned it couldn’t be logged into for another two hours.

In Des Moines, Iowa, it took Vicki Wood, 44, about two hours to buy insurance through the federal insurance exchange Saturday at a community center in Des Moines. Wood encountered one glitch with HealthCare.gov. When she tried to create an account, the website logged her out, but after about 10 minutes on the phone with a call center operator, her information was recovered and she logged back in.