Article

2013-11-21 Government

Oregon healthcare exchange website never worked, has no subscribers

[Chicago Tribune] Oregon, a state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is enduring one of the rockiest rollouts of President Back Obama's signature health care law, with an inoperative online exchange that has yet to enroll a single subscriber, requiring thousands to apply on paper instead.

Unlike most other states, Oregon set an ambitious course to make its insurance exchange, dubbed Cover Oregon, an "all-in-one" website for every individual seeking health coverage, including those who are eligible for Medicaid.

But instead of serving as a national model, Oregon's experience has emerged as a cautionary tale, inviting comparisons to technical glitches that have plagued other state-run portals and the federal government's website for those states lacking exchanges of their own.

Oregon's online exchange has remained inaccessible to the public, requiring the state to sign up applicants the old-fashioned way, using paper forms. This has made comparison shopping more difficult for consumers and severely slowed the enrollment process.

"Oregonians have questions," said state Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, in a written statement on Tuesday. "What went wrong with the rollout? How are they going to fix it? When are they going to get it right? Is the website contractor doing everything it can? Our people need to know."

Courtney urged state politicians to "ask the hard questions" of officials overseeing the state's healthcare exchange, and the Oregon Health Authority, at a pair of legislative hearings on the program scheduled for Wednesday.

With its online insurance marketplace out of commission and unavailable to the public indefinitely, the state has resorted to urging would-be subscribers to fill out applications that are between nine and 19 pages long by hand, said Michael Cox, a front man for Cover Oregon.

In the meantime, the program has hired about 400 temporary workers to help process those applications before January 1, when the new plans are due to take effect, Cox said.

Posted by Fred 2013-11-21 00:00|| || Front Page|| [10325 views ] Top

#1 Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10, and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers, and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35, and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50
each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!

Now you have a better understanding of how the Obama Health Care PLAN WILL WORK!!!!

Posted by Besoeker 2013-11-21 00:58|| 2013-11-21 00:58|| Front Page Top

#2 In the meantime, the program has hired about 400 temporary workers to help process those applications before January 1, when the new plans are due to take effect, Cox said.

That way, the temporary workers decide who should lie to get the subsidy - the one the taxpayers (or the Chines) fund.

Posted by Bobby 2013-11-21 08:09|| 2013-11-21 08:09|| Front Page Top

#3 You ain't seen nothing yet - This is just the signup process, just wait until they start handling your healthcare....

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-11-21 08:55|| 2013-11-21 08:55|| Front Page Top

#4 This is just the signup process, just wait until they start handling your healthcare....

WinfreyCare! The ~~final solution~~ "re-branding" has already begun.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-11-21 09:16|| 2013-11-21 09:16|| Front Page Top

#5 Come on, don't be quitters! Communism hasn't ever worked and people didn't given up on that.

Posted by SteveS 2013-11-21 19:21|| 2013-11-21 19:21|| Front Page Top

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