Healthcare.gov Website Appears to be Overwhelmed by Traffic

Out of curiosity I have been trying to get onto the new government website that allows Americans to shop for insurance, Healthcare.gov. This website is where the government’s federally run healthcare marketplace is located. I have been trying for the past two days, without much success, to gain access to the Healthcare Exchange. It would be interesting to get some stats on the amount of traffic that the site is receiving. Apparently, they are overwhelmed and they are placing you in a virtual line to create an account. Below is the error message that I received when I tried to create an account:

The error message states, “We have lots of visitors on the site right now. Please stay on this page. We’re working to make the experience better, and we don’t want you to lose your place in line. We’ll send you to the log in page as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience!” I tried waiting around as the page periodically reloaded. Eventually, after approximately five minutes of “hold” time I was presented with the signup form. I completed the form and after I hit submit, I was then thrown to an error page:

“Important: your account couldn’t be created at this time. The system is unavailable ”

So, we will see how the federally run healthcare exchange works out. I am looking forward to see whether or not there are any better plans out there for us as a family. I think that it is a step in the right direction to freely choose the plans that are available, especially when you have to pay for your own insurance. Why should I or any other employee be limited to the healthcare options offered by our employers? No matter how frustrating these early stages are, I hope that it will get better, and the window shoppers, like myself, will get to look around to see what is available. Then we can get out of line so that the people who really need to utilize the services are moved to the front of the line to get their insurance.

Here are a few books that you may want to check out to get more information on the Affordable Care Act/ Obamacare.