01 Oct 2013 HHS Officials: Exchange Problem Is Solved…Err…It Is Evolving And Going Away

I recorded a press call with officials from the Dept. of Health and Human Services earlier today.  I’ve put the last 9 minutes or so here on YouTube:

The clip starts with a Detroit News reporter talking about the inability of people to get past the “security question” portion of the federal exchange website.  She asked how many other exchanges had this problem.

THe HHS official responded: “There’s a little bit of confusion here…it’s a single website for the federal exchange.  If you’re talking about Michigan or you’re talking about Virginia or you’re talking about Florida, you are accessing it through the same website.  It was an issue we had earlier.  It’s been corrected, and so once you correct it it’s corrected across the 36 states.”

But later, at about the 4:48 mark, a Fayetteville Observer reporter said that he’d just tried the federal exchange again and the “security question” problem was still there.

Same HHS Official: “We are making the improvements as we speak…we are certainly happy to follow up with Fayetteville.  And what we are hearing from other issuers is that problem is evolving and going away.”

At this point I can’t determine if it is indeed fixed or “evolving” because right now I can’t get past this page on the site:

UPDATE: I finally got past that screen and started setting up an account.  Got to the security question page..and…drum roll please…the security question drop-down menus do not work!  Guess the problem is still evolving.