Internal memos from the Obama administration suggest Obamacare’s Web problems are holding up the entire enrollment process, including the phone and paper options that President Obama and top officials are pushing as an alternative to the troubled HealthCare.gov website, according to a report by ABC News.
“The same portal is used to determine eligibility no matter how the application is submitted (paper, online),” an Oct. 11 memo from the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight says, according to ABC.
“The paper applications allow people to feel like they are moving forward in the process and provides another option,” it says. “At the end of the day, we are all stuck in the same queue.”
In public remarks, Mr. Obama and others have encouraged uninsured Americans to pick up the phone or fill out a paper application to gain coverage.
On HealthCare.gov’s home page, a photo of a smiling women has been replaced with graphics that steer people toward several enrollment methods.
But ABC News’ revelation appears to throw cold water on the Obama administration’s tips for circumventing the glitch-plagued federal website, which is supposed to be fixed by the end of the month.
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The federal website, which handles requests for coverage from 36 states, has gone down for hours on end in recent days because of scheduled maintenance or because of outages on its Verizon Terremark network.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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