Administration promises better Obamacare enrollment website this year

The Obama administration said Friday the American public will find a simpler, more reliable HealthCare.gov when Obamacare’s second round of enrollment begins Saturday — a chance for the law’s overseers to redeem themselves after last year’s failed launch nearly doomed the overhaul in its infancy.

The Health and Human Services Department said consumers can choose from a larger array of health plans on the federal exchange system that serves 37 states.

An enhanced “window shopping” tool, which lets users look at plans before signing up for an account, should cut down on web-traffic issues that affected the front end of the system last year.

“When Open Enrollment begins tomorrow, consumers who are renewing their coverage or signing up for the first time will have an opportunity to obtain quality health coverage at a price they can afford,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said.

Meanwhile, 13 states and D.C. are running their own portals and testing new strategies to reach the uninsured.

Kentucky’s exchange launched a new mobile app last week opened a “kynect” store at the Fayette Mall in Lexington, after Connecticut and Colorado said their brick-and-mortar strategies worked last year, spokeswoman Gwenda Bond said.

The store will be staffed by kynect personnel and open during mall hours. Ms. Bond said if it is successful, the state may expand pilot program to new sites next year.

Obamacare customers who purchased plans last year can renew their plans automatically, although federal officials are encouraging returning customers to shop around for the best deal, since their costs may change in 2015.

Enrollment will be open until Feb. 15, meaning customers have two fewer months than they did last year to find a plan.

The law also faces political headwinds on Capitol Hill, where its Republican opponents will take control of both chambers of Congress in January.

Already, HHS has dialed back expectations for the sign-up period. They estimated that 9-10 million people would be enrolled in the Obamacare marketplace in 2015 — far short of the 13 million estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.

But the Gallup polling company says more than half of uninsured Americans — 55 percent — plan to sign up for health coverage this year, a good sign for the administration if they actually follow through.

Thirty-five percent said they would not sign up and instead pay the fine required by the law’s individual mandate, which requires people to hold health insurance if they can afford it and do not qualify for an exemption.

The pollsters said 30 percent of uninsured Americans were not aware of the tax penalty.

Health care advocates are trying to get Americans covered and avoid the tax penalty, which kicked in this year at $95 or 1 percent of adjusted gross income, and will rise in 2015 to $325 or 2 percent of income.

Choose Health Delaware, a program designed to help the state’s residents understand the law, has a penalty calculator on its landing page. Other sites, including TurboTax, have offered similar functions.