Locally and across the country people are complaining technical problems, and more than a week later they still can’t buy insurance.
Error message on healthcare.gov(Photo: healthcare.gov)
It’s been nine days since Americans were told they could begin signing up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
But many people locally and across the country are complaining technical problems on healthcare.gov are keeping them from purchasing insurance.
10News asked people on Facebook if they had been able to purchase insurance through the website. The overwhelming majority of the more than 100 comments said they could not get the website to work.
Knoxville Area Project Access, an organization designated by the government to help people use the exchange, said they have about 30-50 calls a day. KAPA Executive Director Erin Hill said the majority of them are calling with frustrations about the website.
So far, KAPA hasn’t seen anyone make it through the entire process.
“I want insurance. I need insurance,” said Debbie Rudd of Maryville.
She was recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure and also suffers from COPD. She needs to have a test done but cannot afford the $700 payment required.
Rudd is hoping to find affordable insurance on healthcare.gov, the website designed by the federal government to purchase insurance.
“I expected that there would be issues with it. Like any new thing,” she said.
But she didn’t expect to still be waiting nine days after it opened. At one point, she was able to log in, create an account, and see quotes from different providers.
“There was 67 policies I do remember that. Sixty-seven policies to compare,” Rudd said. “I thought I don’t know which one is more critical to me so I’ll come back later. Later has not been possible. I go to the log in, it lets me put my user name and password in but that’s as far as I get.”
In Knoxville, Julie Wallen wants insurance for preventative reasons.
“I just want to be able to go once a year, have a physical, and have all the tests that women need,” said Wallen.
She has created multiple accounts and logged on dozens of times.
“And still have never been able to get on to find the rates,” said Wallen.
Knoxville Area Project Access, an organization designated by the government to help people use the exchange, said they have about 30-50 calls a day. KAPA Executive Director Erin Hill said the majority of them are calling with frustrations about the website.
So far, KAPA hasn’t seen anyone make it through the entire process.
For now, Rudd and Wallen are going to keep trying to prevent paying a penalty come tax season.
“I just want rates. That’s all I want. I just want to know if it’s affordable? It’s called the Affordable Care Act, but is it affordable?” said Wallen.
“What I want is to be able to get in on this system, be able to look and make a comparison to make a logical decision,” said Rudd. “If I can have insurance in place January 1st then I’ll be happy.”
Government technology experts took the website down on Monday in attempt to fix the glitches, but it’s still unclear if that’s going to be enough.
Officials say the trouble comes from millions of people trying to log on.