On the first day for individual enrollment in the Affordable Care Act, some states are having to delay the opening of their state exchanges due to implementation issues.
Both Minnesota and Maryland were scheduled to implement their systems on Tuesday morning. However, technical issues forced both to push back the opening until at least the afternoon, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire:
Minnesota’s health insurance exchange, MNsure, won’t be able to open until Tuesday afternoon after a final round of tests with the federal government, a spokesman said.
In Maryland, the state’s Maryland Health Connection website was set to open at 8 a.m. local time, but a notice is now telling consumers to try again at noon. The notice said the site is "experiencing connectivity issues."
Minnesota and Maryland are among the 14 states running their own health insurance exchanges, with other states leaving all or part of the job to the federal government. The two states had hoped to open their doors Tuesday morning after plugging into a federal data services hub that’s needed to determine people’s eligibility for health insurance or Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income Americans.
MNsure also said the first set of insurance agents and other assisters won’t be certified to help consumers with insurance decisions until Wednesday.
Minnesota and Maryland are not the first states where individuals will face delays. Oregon, Colorado, and the District of Columbia all have been forced to put limitations on who will be able to use the system on October 1.