Marketplace website goes offline briefly this morning

The site was down for maintenance after federal officials said that it had 2 million visits over the weekend.

Politico: HealthCare.gov Offline For Nearly Six Hours On Deadline Morning
Obamacare sign-up closes at midnight and enrollment is surging, but a technical flare-up on HealthCare.gov Monday morning marred the administration's momentum. The online portal, which had been handling millions of visitors over the past few days as enrollment pushed past 6 million, was "down for maintenance" starting at around 3:20 a.m. Officials said it returned to functionality at 9 a.m. (Kenen and Cheney, 3/31).

USA Today: Healthcare Site Goes Down Briefly As Deadline Nears
The federal government's healthcare enrollment website -- HealthCare.gov -- went down briefly early Monday for extended maintenance as heavy traffic was building on the last day of open enrollment for 2014. At one point, the site told visitors that it was "down for maintenance" and asked people to "please try again later." At other points, visitors were told there was heavy traffic on the system and were asked to remain online in a "virtual waiting room" until they could be connected. Administration spokesman Aaron Albright said the website undergoes "regular nightly maintenance" during off-peak hours and that period was extended Monday because of a "technical problem." ... Administration officials said interest was surging as the deadline neared. Sunday evening, Health and Human Services announced 2 million visits over the weekend to HealthCare.gov, the federal government's enrollment site. (Schouten and Kennedy, 3/30).

NBC News: Obamacare Website Down As Deadline Arrives
People trying to apply and enroll for private health insurance through Obamacare before Monday's midnight deadline discovered the website was "currently unavailable." Healthcare.gov, the online marketplace bedeviled by bugs since its launch last fall, went down for several hours Monday morning, a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services said. The "tech team is working now to bring the system online as soon as possible," HHS said in a statement. The site later appeared to be operating, but it was putting customers in a "queue", meaning they'd be notified by email when they could proceed with enrollment (Fox, 3/31).

The New York Times: HealthCare.gov Malfunctions on Last Enrollment Day
The federal website where consumers can sign up for medical coverage under President Obama's health care law unexpectedly stopped taking applications for several hours early Monday, the last day of open enrollment, because of a software problem, the administration said. The enrollment system on the site, HealthCare.gov, was taken offline for scheduled maintenance between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., but then remained down for several more hours because of a software bug discovered by technology personnel during maintenance, said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services (Joachim, 3/31).

The Wall Street Journal: Long Waits As Health Insurance Deadline Nears
Last-minute applicants for health insurance strained enrollment offices over the weekend, triggering long lines, extra security and hours of waiting across the country ahead of Monday's federal deadline. HealthCare.gov, the federal website, blocked some applicants late Friday but didn't show major technological problems as consumers rushed before the end of the 2014 open-enrollment period for obtaining insurance under the Affordable Care Act. But the system's human capacity maxed out, with too few "navigators" and other enrollment workers to steer consumers through the complex application process (Radnofsky and Corbett Dooren, 3/30).

The Hill: Record Volume For O-Care Exchanges
The federal health insurance marketplace saw record volume for a Saturday, and operators at the federal call centers struggled to keep up with the volume of calls as consumers flooded the ObamaCare exchanges ahead of Monday's enrollment deadline. According to the Obama administration, HealthCare.Gov saw two million visits this weekend, while the call centers received 380,000 phone calls (Sink, 3/30).

The Chicago Sun-Times: Monday Is Last Day To Enroll In Obamacare Health Plan For 2014
Last-minute shoppers for health insurance were greeted by lines and lengthy wait times Sunday as they attempted to obtain coverage under the Affordable Care Act before Monday's registration deadline. After several enrollment deadlines for President Barack Obama's signature health insurance law were rolled back, Monday is when nearly everyone is required to have coverage. Those who don't risk paying a penalty -; one that will increase each year, starting at $95 or 1 percent of your yearly household income, if that is higher. "We got here at 10 a.m.," Dayanara Valladares, 20, said roughly five hours after her family arrived at Norwegian American Hospital in Humboldt Park to sign up. Seated on a park bench outside the hospital, Valladares, who lives in Albany Park, said the wait time was "ridiculous" (3/30).