The rollout of the government's website is said to be disastrous. The President was compelled to call a press conference to address the issue. One of his suggestions to avoid the flawed website is to file a paper application or provide information by telephone. One observer suggested bringing back the telegraph!
One of the excuses offered was overwhelming demand "swamping" servers. The healthcare site struggled to handle 8 million hits in it's first week. eBizMBA pointed out that Google handles 225 million routinely, Facebook 175 million, Yahoo 125, YouTube 122. An increasing number of commentators and news outlets are predicting much larger issues lie ahead.
One of them is cancellation or failure to accept renewal of existing policies. Here's a few examples: Florida Blue is terminating 300,000 policies, about 80% of it's policies in Florida. Kaiser Permanente in California has already sent out cancellation notices to 160,000 people, half it's individual business in CA. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping 20% of it's individual market customers. Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45%. Blue Shield of California sent 119,000 cancellation notices in mid-September, 60% of it's individual business. About 2/3 of remaining policyholders will see substantial rate increases.
Without going into the effects of the Act on employers, what do you suppose these Insurors know that we (or I) do not? Should we be deeply concerned? jocular