This story comes from our partner 鈥榮 Shots blog.
The Obama administration鈥檚 hopes ran high that millions would flock to enroll for health insurance on state and federal exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act.
Those exchanges went online Oct 1. The administration that half a million individuals or families would enroll within 30 days, according to the Associated Press.
But three weeks in, the data suggest the actual number of enrollments is lagging far behind that number.
The promise of signing up for health insurance with point-and-click ease at and state exchange sites has not come to pass 鈥� at least not yet.
鈥淭his is a fiasco,鈥� says health policy analyst . He says the sites are plagued by glitches and problems with data transfer.
鈥淟iterally a handful of enrollments [are] coming through to the largest insurance companies every day,鈥� Laszewski says. 鈥淛ust a handful, like maybe 10 or 20 or 30. So anecdotally, the enrollments are very, very, very low.鈥�
Laszewski says the inability to get through to a website is not the only issue. Insurance companies are getting bad information, too.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not uncommon for, say, John Doe鈥檚 enrollment to come through at 10 in the morning. And then at 10:30 something comes through that says John Doe鈥檚 unenrolled 鈥� and then enrolled and unenrolled again,鈥� he says.
The federal government, which is for 36 states through healthcare.gov, has been plagued by technical problems. Health and Human Services hasn鈥檛 disclosed enrollment figures. But the digital marketing company Millward Brown estimates that 83,000 people enrolled through the federal site in the
The 14 states that opted to 聽appear to be faring better, though not by much. Among those states, the estimate of total enrollees so far is about 46, 000. Those numbers are complicated by the fact that there is no common definition of what 鈥渆nrolled鈥� means. In some states, you鈥檙e not considered 鈥渆nrolled鈥� until you鈥檝e paid.
Laszewski says these small numbers could threaten the economics for insurers.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e very worried about only sick people showing up for coverage, because only sick people are willing to go through the gauntlet,鈥� he says.
There are two ways of looking at this: One is that the new law is failing to meet expectations. But proponents of the law argue it鈥檚 still early and that many of these problems can be overcome.
Things will improve, says , a law professor at Washington and Lee University. He points to the prescription drug benefit known as Medicare Part D. The federal program launched in 2005 during the Bush administration, and had its own technical difficulties.
鈥淥nce people were finally signed up, there were problems that they would go to the pharmacy and there was no record of them,鈥� Jost says. He expects similar problems here.
鈥淪o it will take a while to get the kinks ironed out,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut the important thing right now is to allow people to get signed up, and I think there鈥檚 an awful lot of people who want to do that.鈥�
In fact, there are two states that are declaring their sign-up efforts a success. Carrie Banahan, executive director of Kentucky鈥檚 , says more than 15,000 individuals have enrolled.
鈥淲e鈥檙e thrilled with these numbers. We had no idea that there would be such a demand and an overwhelming response,鈥� says Banahan.
Kentucky鈥檚 site was so overwhelmed that administrators had to add servers to its system.
Washington state reports about 30,000 enrollees. , CEO of Washington鈥檚 health exchange, says his state was prepared.
鈥淲e started early. We鈥檝e been working on this for nearly 2 1/2 years,鈥� says Onizuka.
Still, even Washington鈥檚 system crashed. It went down for 4 1/2 hours on the first day.
鈥淚t was nerve wracking. We did a lot of analysis and diagnosis,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e were hoping it would get better the second day. It got a little bit better 鈥�. We took it down the second night and it got better the third day.鈥�
Onizuka says with time, anxiety has gone down.
鈥淚鈥檓 breathing a little easier,鈥� he says.
The federal government plans to release its first enrollment figures in mid-November.