Local navigator says insurance website better, but not '100 percent'

Editor's note: This is the fourth of several stories in an ongoing series about the Affordable Care Act.

This story has been edited to reflect the correct day of an informational enrollment event.

The Affordable Care Act's health insurance enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, is becoming more operational and allowing more Americans to enroll in health-insurance plans. But it remains a work in progress.

The Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month said the worst of the problems with the exchange have been fixed, but officials said there is more work to be done, and users still could encounter issues when trying to enroll, The Associated Press reported.

Locally, Liz Yokley, an ACA navigator and outreach coordinator at Aging Matters, has been fighting freezes on multiple ends -- from the weather and the website.

Aging Matters -- formerly called the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging -- and three other organizations held an enrollment event Wednesday as the winter storm was building momentum. Aging Matters, which has four navigators, held the meeting with APS Navigators of Southeast Missouri State University, the East Missouri Action Agency and the Cape Girardeau Public Library to provide enrollment assistance for people needing to obtain insurance. Seven people attended the event.

Yokley said she was impressed with the knowledge of those who attended the event. They already had attempted to enroll themselves, but most of those individuals left the library no further ahead than they were before, she said.

Throughout the earlier part of the day, navigators were not able to enroll anyone using the exchange because of the website freezing. One man was able to enroll by using the exchange later in the afternoon, Yokley said.

The website is operating better than it was, but using it to enroll individuals in an insurance plan is a hit-or-miss situation, Yokley said.

"Is it 100 percent successful? No," she said. "However, it is better than it was a month ago."

Yokley questioned whether the system freezing had anything to do with the number of users logged on to the website, the time of day or even the weather. Those on the other end of the 1-800 number for HealthCare.gov said they were experiencing the same difficulties, she said.

In a report released earlier this month, the government estimated more than 50,000 people can log on to HealthCare.gov at one time and more than 800,000 people can shop for insurance coverage each day, The Associated Press reported.

Yokley so far has enrolled three individuals in a health-insurance plan using the website.

More educational seminars regarding the ACA and the health-care website will be offered locally, she said, because people still have questions -- the main one being about potential premiums.

The man who was able to enroll in a plan Thursday was single and about 60 years old, Yokley said. He was happy with his new premium because it was much less than what he currently pays, she said.

Until individuals are able to make it through the process of enrolling in a health-insurance plan on the website, navigators only are able to provide premium estimates, Yokley said.

Depending on which health-insurance plan is chosen, the cost of premiums can be lowered with subsidies.

In time, navigators may know more about the website's situation. Until then, Yokley said every day is a new day.

"It is moving forward," she said of the health-care website. "Every day I feel like it is probably getting stronger."

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