This story first appeared in Reuters.
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - U.S. insurers fear that a surge in enrollments on the
revamped government-run healthcare website could create more problems
for insurance companies already struggling with error-filled
applications for coverage three weeks before a sign-up deadline.
In
what could become the next major headache for President Barack Obama's
signature domestic policy, a group representing leading U.S. insurers
said on Tuesday that technology fixes that will enable millions of
people to sign on to HealthCare.gov have not fully addressed faulty data
that the site has been sending these companies about their new
enrollees.
The problems include enrollment forms with erroneous
personal information and duplicate or missing applications. In some
cases, consumers who believe they have signed up may not have a file
with the insurer.
The warning coincided with an effort by Obama
to win back support for the healthcare overhaul after the website's
disastrous October 1 debut sent his job approval ratings plummeting and
threatened to damage fellow Democrats in next year's congressional
elections.
The website, which allows consumers to shop for
insurance policies, is a main component of the 2010 Affordable Care Act
aimed at providing health benefits to millions of uninsured Americans.
Daniel
Durham, a vice president for policy and regulatory affairs at America's
Health Insurance Plans, a lobby group for health insurers, said
companies were regularly receiving faulty enrollment forms. He did not
give details on how frequently the errors were appearing.
"So far
we've been able to deal with these issues because there's been
relatively low volume," Durham said. "But now that the floodgates are
open at the front end... we're going to see a lot more volume. And
health plans just don't have the personnel to do all this manually."
Durham
said insurers need "clean" enrollment files so they can be processed by
the December 23 deadline for coverage to start on January 1.
'THIS LAW IS WORKING'
The
White House said that more than a million people had visited
HealthCare.gov on Monday, the first day after major technical repairs to
the website. It did not say how many people had completed applications
and enrolled in new plans.
The botched rollout of Obamacare has
hurt the popularity of the initiative. Opposition to the healthcare law
stood at 59 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-November.
Obama
on Tuesday encouraged Americans to look beyond the website and
recognize the benefits of the law known as Obamacare. "The bottom line
is this law is working and will work into the future. People want the
financial stability of health insurance," Obama said in a speech.
While
Obama and his aides have been focusing on fixing the most visible
problems with the website, insurers say that serious technical issues
are still plaguing the so-called "back end" of the portal that transmits
important user information to insurance companies.
"It's a real
problem for plans when the enrollment file never comes over, and then
you get the consumer calling, and the plan has no record of that
individual," Durham said at a forum organized by Georgetown University
and law firm Arent Fox. "Time is short. January 1 is coming around
fairly quickly here."
Cynthia Michener, spokeswoman for Aetna
Inc, the third-largest U.S. insurer, said the company is continuing to
receive flawed enrollment files, including duplicate records.
She
also said that while there have been improvements with the website's
performance, Aetna is helping "identify, prioritize and test additional
issues."
White House spokesman Jay Carney, meanwhile, said the
government was working with experts to make sure every enrollment form
on the site is accurate.
"We believe that and are confident that
they will be able to ensure that accuracy in time for the January 1st
beginning of coverage for those who have signed up for it," he said.
CHANGING THE MESSAGE
Republicans
in Congress and conservative groups have attacked the law relentlessly
as an example of government overreach, criticism that has snowballed
since the problems with HealthCare.gov.
Obama's job approval
rating is at historic lows. A Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Tuesday
showed his overall job approval rating at 38 percent, with 63 percent of
respondents saying the country is on the wrong track. The November
29-December 3 poll of 1,494 Americans is accurate to plus or minus 2.6
percentage points for all adults.
The administration is trying to
win back disgruntled Democrats facing a backlash from the healthcare
debacle when they run for re-election next year in Congress.
Democrats
in the House of Representatives who met with White House officials on
Tuesday said they plan to counter Republican attacks on the law with
stories about people it has helped.
Some Democrats, however,
remain frustrated by the botched rollout. "I'm glad they're working on
it but I'm still very disappointed. I'm still absolutely bewildered as
to why they weren't ready," said Representative Carol Shea-Porter,
Democrat from New Hampshire.
The federal website was supposed to
make it easy to buy health insurance in 36 states. Other states run
their own online marketplaces.
