Dec 9 2013
Washington D.C.'s insurance exchange has been having problems.
The Washington Post: House Extends Current Health Plans For Lawmakers, Staffers, If Needed
Acknowledging widespread issues with the process of enrolling for new health-care coverage, House officials reiterated Thursday that lawmakers and their staffs whose current health insurance is set to be terminated at the end of the year will automatically have that coverage extended until the end of January unless they have already enrolled in new coverage. The reminder from House administrative officials is standard operating procedure for anyone set to lose coverage under the health care program for federal employees (O'Keefe, 12/5).
Politico: House Official Presses OPM On Obamacare
[The House's chief administrative officer] Dan Strodel wrote in a message sent Thursday evening that he is well aware of the struggles that people have faced with the D.C. exchange, where members of Congress and qualifying aides will enroll for their coverage. ... In one of its latest technical problems, the website for D.C. Health Link was down for maintenance earlier Thursday -- the same time that staffers for the exchange were in a Senate office building, trying to help aides sign up (Kim, 12/5).
Roll Call: D.C. Health Link Glitch Causes Headaches At House Health Fair
On Thursday, with about five days left until the end of open enrollment, House staffers trickled out of the health benefits fair with packets of new insurance information and knowledge of a new roadblock. … DC Health Link experienced "technical difficulties with their website," according to a mass email sent to all Senate staff at 11:32 a.m. The glitch meant employees could learn more about the plans being offered by insurance carriers on the site but not enroll (Hess, 12/5).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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Rising health costs push some middle-aged adults to skip the doc until Medicare