A magazine that tests and rates products and reports the results monthly had harsh words of advice for those trying to enroll in Obamacare via the official website, Healthcare.gov: Don’t even think about it yet.
Consumer Reports started on the website’s launch day to test its ease of use. Its report then: “If you’re planning to use the marketplace to get health insurance for 2014, don’t worry if you can’t sign up today or even within the next couple of weeks,” The Daily Mail reported. And the next day, during another test, the magazine writers were still counseling patience, writing that “the best strategy is simply to wait a week or two for the initial traffic to die down. We tried it several times today and never succeeded in getting through.”
But a week later, and Consumer Reports was starting to lose patience.
On Oct. 8, the writers said: “One week in, Healthcare.gov is barely operational.” And on Oct. 10, the writers adopted a decidedly more critical tone: “Healthcare.gov is slightly less terrible today. The bad news, is that it’s still next to impossible to create a user name and password that you can actually use to sign in. I myself have tried five times without success. Our readers report similar frustrations.”
And Consumer Reports’ final advice?
“Don’t bother even trying for another couple of weeks,” the magazine suggested, offering a range of other tips “to get past the roadblocks,” The Daily Mail said. “But if all this is too much for you to absorb, follow our previous advice: Stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can.”
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• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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