BOSTON The state that served as a template for President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act had so much trouble coordinating with the federal government that it became a model of another sort: ineptitude. <\/p>\n
The Massachusetts website, designed by the same contractor that worked on the troubled federal website, performed so poorly it prompted a public apology from Gov. Deval Patrick and forced health care officials to adopt a series of manual workarounds, creating a backlog of more than 50,000 paper applications. <\/p>\n
Massachusetts was one of several states where the ambition of running their own health insurance marketplace inside a new federal system ran into a harsh reality. <\/p>\n
Some, like Oregon and Nevada, folded and decided to go with the federal exchange for the second round of open enrollment, which began Saturday. Others, like Maryland and Massachusetts, fired their technology contractors and are hoping for better results this time. <\/p>\n
It hasn't been cheap. <\/p>\n
The original cost of Massachusetts' website was estimated at $174 million. That has jumped to $254 million. When launched, the website was incompatible with some browsers and was riddled with error messages and navigational problems. The problems were so bad, federal officials gave the state three extra months to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. <\/p>\n
Patrick said there won't be a repeat of the disastrous roll-out this time around, saying the state has \"been testing and retesting\" the revamped website. <\/p>\n
Minnesota's state-run exchange, MNsure, wasn't ready for prime time when it launched in 2013. Some of the technical glitches that frustrated consumers remained unresolved by the time the open enrollment period closed. MNsure officials are promising a better experience this time -- with more call center workers and a website that's 75 percent faster. But they also acknowledge the system won't be perfect. <\/p>\n
California's exchange also was ill-prepared to handle the high volume of calls, triggering long wait times at help centers and forcing the state to extend open enrollment for two weeks beyond the original March 31 deadline. <\/p>\n
\"It swamped us,\" said Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee, promising increased website capacity and extra call center staff. <\/p>\n
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Read this article: <\/p>\n
States working to fix health care websites - Healthcare.gov site runs smoothly - VIDEO: New 'Gruber-gate' video emerges<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BOSTON The state that served as a template for President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act had so much trouble coordinating with the federal government that it became a model of another sort: ineptitude. Continue reading