Consumers and brokers continued to fight overloaded public exchange websites and call centers around 5 p.m. Eastern Time Tuesday as most states' application deadlines for individual major medical coverage that starts Jan. 1 neared.
*** See also: HealthCare.gov extends Jan. 1 coverage deadline 2 days ***
Consumers flocked to the HealthCare.gov feed on Google+, a social media service than can be much quieter than Twitter or Facebook, to tell the HealthCare.gov social media team about website problems and, in some cases, to try to document that they were doing their best to be in the official line for exchange plan coverage that starts Jan. 1.
B. Ronnell Nolan, a Louisiana broker and president of Health Agents for America (HAFA), emailed a screenshot of the HealthCare.gov error message getting in the way of her helping her clients. The "American people deserve another day to enroll," she said.
In Columbus, Ohio, Mosaic Employee Benefits reported that one big Ohio carrier had already extended its application deadline for Jan. 1 coverage to Dec. 31.
The application deadline for Jan. 1 coverage in HealthCare.gov states is midnight Pacific Time today.
Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), estimated in a tweet that consumers made about 1 million calls to the HealthCare.gov call center Monday, and that 185,000 people, or about 1 in 1,500 of all U.S. residents, were shopping on the HealthCare.gov enrollment site at 9 p.m. Eastern Time Monday.
HealthCare.gov will treat consumers who give their email addresses to HealthCare.gov by the end of the day today or leave the email address at 1-800-318-2596 as being eligible to complete applications for Jan. 1 coverage, Slavitt said.
