Health Care

‘Stay away’ from ObamaCare until glitches fixed: Watchdog

Consumer Reports is advising people to ”stay away” from enrolling in ObamaCare until serious technical flaws with the program are fixed.

The national consumer-watchdog group told its readers to avoid the healthcare.gov exchange Web site “for at least another month if you can.”

“Hopefully, that will be long enough for its software vendors to clean up the mess they’ve made,” said the stinging critique by CR, which is published by Consumers Union.

The editors have been monitoring the ObamaCare exchange Web site since the Oct. 1 rollout.

After the first week, its editors panned the site as “barely operational.”

“Wait a couple of weeks and hope that the site irons out its many problems,” one early review said.

The magazine offered tips to help consumers navigate the application process, which requires visitors to log in to enroll. While noticing some improvements, CR said there are still too many glitches with the system.

“If all [our tips] are too much to absorb, follow our previous advice: Stay away from HealthCare.gov,” CR said.

CR is considered the bible for reviewing products ranging from cars to tablets to vacuums.

Other experts also are steering customers away from ObamaCare for now, including insurance brokers.

One expert said the feds made a big mistake by requiring consumers to log in with an ID in order to enroll. Instead, visitors should be allowed to navigate the site and then log in to sign up.

“It’s counterintuitive to deal with,” said Brian Bodner, president of the New York metro chapter of the Association of Health Underwriters. “It’s a nightmare. Everything was rushed. There’s no need for it.”

Tech experts said the Obama administration will be under the gun to fix the health care Web site. Individuals must enroll by Dec. 15 for policies that begin Jan. 1.

“It’s going to be pretty tense to see if they can fix it because of the politics. These are superfast deadlines,” said John Kaehny of Reinvent Albany.

The big challenge with ObamaCare is integrating a massive amount of information from separate government databases into one network, said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Group.

“That’s the hard part — getting these data bases to talk to each other,” said Horner.

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Q: How long will it take to fix the ObamaCare Web site?

A: Who knows? But it has to be done in weeks — not months — to meet the Dec. 15 deadline for coverage that starts Jan. 1. After that, open enrollment for 2014 ends March 31 . And, since it takes a couple of weeks to process applications, try to sign up by Feb. 15 for coverage beginning March 1.

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Q: How much is the penalty for having no coverage?

A: Adults would have to pay $95 or 1 percent of annual income, whichever is higher, in 2014. Someone making $100,000 faces a $1,000 hit. That increases to 2 percent of income or $325 in 2015, and 2.5 percent or $695 in 2016.

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Q: What if I can’t get make it through the Web sign-up?

A: President Obama announced this number to connect to a live person at a call center: (800) 318-2596. But it could get busy — the computer systems for states running the insurance exchanges are the same as the computer systems that consumers are having trouble accessing.

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Q: Is ObamaCare making health insurance more affordable?

A: Depends on where you live. Rates are down about 29 percent in New York state, according to the Manhattan Institute.

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Q: Can you keep your current doctor under ObamaCare?

A: Maybe. Doctors’ networks are getting smaller and your favorite doctor or hospital might not be included in ObamaCare insurance plans. “Depending on the type of policy you buy, care may be covered only when you get it from a network provider,” says the Web site.