The federal government has met its deadlines, tested its system and collected insurance plan information critical to rolling out the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the White House and other federal officials say, despite the rumors of “train wrecks,” delays and bare-bones health care exchanges rocking Washington.
White House and Health and Human Services Department officials working on implementing the plan say the exchanges will be up and running for enrollment by Oct. 1, according to a report by USA Today.
Sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal meetings.
Their comments echo those by President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the exchanges, which are websites where consumers can shop for and buy health insurance.
So far, White House and HHS officials say the government has taken the following steps:
• Insurers met last Friday’s deadline to download their plan information into the exchange system without problems, said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, deputy director for policy and operations at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). “We are meeting our timelines, and we are on schedule and meeting our benchmarks,” she said.
• HHS officials have determined the federal website for exchanges can support the expected large volumes of traffic. They brought in people from Medicare who already have experience handling large numbers, the report said.
• HHS has started reaching out to populations that will have to buy health insurance on the new exchanges with a push targeted to the neighborhood level, the report said. Half of the uninsured people ages 18 to 35 are in three states – Texas, Florida and California.
The health insurance exchange for Wisconsin residents will be administered by the federal government because Gov. Scott Walker declined to accept federal funding for the state to administer the program.
