The White House is reporting that HealthCare.gov “is working much better,” and that “29,000 Americans enrolled…in the first 24 hours after it was repaired,” which is “more than signed up in the entire month of October.”
But some government descriptions are more measured, mentioning ongoing struggles with the site.
USA Today reports that the federal government is also acknowledging that “officials are still working with insurers to fix data issues with ‘834 forms,’ which give insurers information about their new enrollees.”
Politico reports it is possibile that, because of the government’s mismanagement of the health care exchange, “more people could have lost coverage than gained it” as a result of the ACA’s implementation.
Rep. Darrel Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said “he believes the troubled HealthCare.gov website will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion before it is fully operational.” In an appearance on Fox News, Issa said, “The fact is, eventually they’ll get this website working, at the cost of probably over a billion dollars. They’re probably closer to $700 million now and they’re going to spend a lot more doing the hard parts on the back end.”
The Daily Caller also reports that “a ‘good-guy hacker’ who probed for weaknesses in the security systems of HealthCare.gov” said “that ‘no security was built into this entire infrastructure’ and that citizens’ personal data is at serious risk.” TrustedSec CEO David Kennedy said, “It’s a prime target for hackers right now. … One of the most alarming pieces about this is that the federal government does not have to disclose that there was a breach of data, so all your information can be taken and sold on the black market and you would have no idea.”
