Politico Looks to Joel Ario for Two Articles on Exchange Launch Results
"Glitches and Recoveries: State Exchanges Run the Gamut" and "Obamacare Has Time to Fix Exchanges - But Not Forever"
Politico
October 3, 2013 - Politico turned to Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health Solutions, for two articles on the results of the October 1 launch of health insurance exchanges.
Politico reports in "Glitches and Recoveries: State Exchanges Run the Gamut" that a few states were quick to report the number of enrollment and consumer interaction throughout launch day. Kentucky reported processing more than 1,000 applications by morning, and Connecticut said 18,000 people logged into its site. The federal exchange, Healthcare.gov, reported 2.8 million unique visitors.
"Probably most of the traffic today is not the average consumer going out there and diligently looking at his options," said Ario. "I just don't think there are that many of them following it that closely at this point. I think it was more people like us."
In "Obamacare Has Time to Fix Exchanges - But Not Forever," Politico reports that the health insurance exchanges were swamped with traffic in the first week, exposing a number of technical glitches and bugs. President Obama has compared the glitchy rollout of the HealthCare.gov site to the snags that happen when Apple releases the newest iPhone or iPad. Industry insiders told the publication that if things don't' smooth out by November, the White House may lose the chance to build confidence in exchanges.
"If it's not there in a month … there's going to be a problem," said Ario.
Read "Glitches and Recoveries: State Exchanges Run the Gamut" here.
Read "Obamacare Has Time to Fix Exchanges - But Not Forever" here.