Obamacare off to slow start

COEUR d'ALENE - Interest in buying health insurance online under the Affordable Care Act ran high Tuesday in Idaho, the first day consumers were able to sign up for coverage under the new federal health law.

Many were unable to enroll, however, because online marketplaces, in Idaho and across the nation, were flooded with insurance seekers.

Your Health Idaho, the Gem State's web-based marketplace established by state law earlier this year, began experiencing problems early in the day.

"In some cases, the slowdowns were for several minutes, or people were put into a holding queue," said Your Health Idaho's executive director, Amy Dowd, during an afternoon telephone press conference.

Dowd told reporters that her agency received more than 420 phone calls from individuals seeking assistance in applying for health insurance, and that by midday, www.yourhealthidaho.org had attracted more than 8,000 unique visitors.

She blamed the enrollment kinks on the high volume of people trying to apply on the federal government's website. Idaho consumers who visit the state's website are directed to the federal web-portal to submit their applications.

Dowd said her agency has received updates from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that efforts are being undertaken to improve the federal site's performance.

Representatives of the federal agency are reporting that there were 2.8 million visitors to the federal website.

Dowd did not know the number of Idaho citizens who were able to successfully enroll in one of the health insurance plans.

"We do not have all of the reporting that we would like, immediately," Dowd said, adding that because it is a six-month enrollment campaign, they expect enrollment numbers to rise and fall until the enrollment period ends in March.

She said she expects it will take a few weeks to get the enrollment data from the federal government. They should have the October enrollment numbers in early November, she said.

Interest in the new health insurance options ran high locally as well. There are roughly 14,000 uninsured citizens living in Kootenai County.

Heritage Health, formerly the Dirne Center, employs the county's only three full-time "in person assisters" - individuals trained by Your Health Idaho to help consumers understand what their options are.

Heritage CEO Mike Baker reported that the health center's Outreach and Enrollment team received dozens of calls, walk-ins and general inquiries about the plans.