They Are Trying to Sabotage Health Insurance Open Enrollment. Again.

  • av: S E Smith
  • mottagare: The Department of Health and Human Services

Open enrollment for health insurance, the one time people can sign up for or change their health insurance without a qualifying life event, starts November 1 and ends December 15. Consumers have just 45 days to research and make choices about their health insurance, and thanks to the Department of Health and Human Services, one of the key resources they need to do that will be unavailable every Sunday morning.

From 12am to 12pm on every Sunday but the last day before open enrollment closes, HHS will be shutting down Healthcare.gov for maintenance. That's a total of 60 hours across the enrollment period, and an important 60 hours! Many people who work busy jobs have limited hours during which they can get their health insurance sorted out, and Sunday mornings may be one of the few times they can carve out room in their schedule to sit down for this important project.

HHS says the maintenance window is just an estimate, and the site likely won't be down the whole time, but that sends a mixed message to consumers: Will Healthcare.gov be available or won't it, and when?

And why can't the agency spend the 10 months of the year during which open enrollment is not occurring to finesse details on the website, test it to make sure it can stand up to traffic, and address needed upgrades and reforms to keep it up and running during this critical period?

This "maintenance" window is little more than a ploy to suppress enrollment in insurance plans, and a tactic that could work, especially in combination with other roadblocks the administration has created.

We're asking the Department of Health and Human Services to reconsider this policy. There's still time to commit to keeping Healthcare.gov working around the clock for the 45-day open enrollment period. Do the right thing and let American consumers access the tools they need to make informed choices about their health insurance!

Photo credit: Marco Verch

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