HealthCare.gov: Meeting the Mark

December 24 and the days leading up to it were critically important for enrollment in Marketplace coverage.

There's no question that, over this past weekend, Monday, and Tuesday, HealthCare.gov met the mark and did exactly what it was supposed to do--helping Americans from across the country find secure, quality health insurance coverage at an affordable price.

Over this four-day period, response time averages held steady at about a half second and page error rates were low at less than half a percent.

Monday, December 23, was our peak day. On Monday, the site was supporting 83,000 concurrent users while our queuing system was up, and it performed as designed. For those queued, wait times were generally less than five to ten minutes and users were given the option of receiving an email telling them when they could come back and get right in. There were 129,000 people who took advantage of this opportunity and were invited back the same day to finish their applications.

On Christmas Eve, the site had a total of 880,000 visits, with no queuing.

The call center also received a high volume of calls on Monday and Tuesday, with 317,000 calls received on Christmas Eve alone.

We're going to do everything we can to ensure a smooth transition period for consumers whose coverage begins on January 1. And we're going to continue to work to ensure every American who still wants to enroll in Marketplace coverage by the end of the open enrollment period is able to do so.

If consumers have any questions regarding their coverage, they should call the insurer of their choice to, among other things, confirm enrollment or arrange payment of premiums, or the Marketplace call center at 1-800-318-2596. They can log in to their account to find out their insurer’s customer service line or browse through a directory on HealthCare.gov.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also has developed a number of consumer tips and fact sheets (under “Fact Sheets”) to help consumers understand their new coverage, such as what consumers should know about going to their doctor or getting emergency care.

We’ve seen the important progress made on HealthCare.gov, and we are going to keep working to make sure the consumer experience continues to improve throughout the open enrollment period.