My must read of the day is "House official presses OPM on Obamacare," in Politico:
The House’s chief administrative officer is urging the Office of Personnel Management to take "immediate steps" to ensure lawmakers and aides can get enrolled under Obamacare despite the myriad glitches they’ve endured as they’ve tried to sign up.
Dan Strodel wrote in a message sent Thursday evening that he is well aware of the struggles that people have faced with the D.C. exchange, where members of Congress and qualifying aides will enroll for their coverage.
"With the end of the open enrollment period drawing near, we have made the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and DC Health Link aware of the significant problems preventing Members and staff in Washington, D.C., and in district offices from enrolling in a healthcare plan via the DC Health Link website," Strodel wrote in the email obtained by Politico. […]
In one of its latest technical problems, the website for D.C. Health Link was down for maintenance earlier Thursday – the same time that staffers for the exchange were in a Senate office building, trying to help aides sign up.
I spoke with a Senate staffer yesterday who told me exactly this. They tried to enroll in the D.C. exchange multiple times but could not complete the application. When they first tried to enroll, the website was offline for nearly four hours. Once the website was back online, their application wouldn’t go through. They spent the day taking a number and waiting to be helped by staff that was provided solely to assist congressional staffers in enrollment. The day ended and they’re still not enrolled in a plan.
Whether it's the D.C. exchange or federal exchanges, websites are not working. For the average person, enrollment is far too often laborious or impossible. It's good staffers are having to experience it as well.
They've dealt with it for a day—consumers have had these problems for months.