Unresolved Connector problems tax patience

A week after the scheduled start of open enrollment for the state’s health insurance exchange, consumers are still unable to purchase medical coverage online, and criticism of the program is mounting.

Officials at the Hawaii Health Connector, the online marketplace created by President Barack Obama’s signature health reform law, said they are working to fix the software problems that have prevented people from comparing health plan prices and purchasing policies.

The Hawaii Health Connector, which was established with $205 million in federal grants, was supposed to begin assisting small businesses and individuals in buying health insurance on Oct. 1. Those without health insurance as of Jan. 1 face penalties of up to 1 percent of income under the new health care law.

"It’s imperative that the Connector gets its site 100 percent up and running, including quotes for people to choose from," said state Sen. Josh Green (D, Kona-Kau), chairman of the Health Committee. "That would only be fair since there’s a mandate that people get health insurance now. People expect to make these decisions. People do want to know when they go shopping what things cost."

Green and other lawmakers have scheduled a briefing on the health reform rollout today at the state Capitol and will seek answers from Connector officials on why the exchange was not ready Oct. 1 and what they’re doing to solve the problem, Green said.

The Connector’s website does not have any information on when the problems will be fixed. Connector call center operators apologized for the lack of pricing information and said it should be available "in the coming weeks."

Connector Executive Director Coral Andrews and Chief Marketing Officer Rick Budar declined to answer questions Tuesday.

The lack of information has angered some Hawaii residents.

"The most frustrating thing to me is the people at the Connector seem to be oblivious of the fact that they’re not serving their clientele. They have received $200 million worth of taxpayers’ money, and they’re not serving their customers," said Barbara Coriell, former administrator of the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, who is paying roughly $1,100 a month for a two-person, private health plan and tried last week to enroll on the Connector. "They’re running ads and acting like there’s no problem. There is a big problem. Why isn’t there a big box as the first thing you see on the website that says, ‘We apologize Hawaii, the system is not working’?"

Hawaiihealthconnector.com logged 19,457 unique visitors to its website Oct. 1, and 1,257 people contacted the call center (877-628-5076), according to a news release issued by the Connector last week. The Connector had not warned people that policy prices would not be available before the launch date.

"Everybody understands when you roll out a new huge computer program, there’s going to be startup glitches, but when they’re led to believe that everything’s perfect and something as fundamental as the rates aren’t there … they get more frustrated than they would’ve been otherwise," said Francis Miller, a professor at Boston University and the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law. "This is bad public relations not to prepare people for it ahead of time when they had to know. It’s the frustration factor that may keep them from coming back the second time."

Connector spokes­man Budar told the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser last week that the rates are "really not something that people need right now. What they need is to be able to get their questions answered to start to get an idea of what the law is about."

"Plans don’t start until 2014, so there’s no reason to rush now," Budar said. "We’re actually encouraging everyone to spend October asking their questions trying to understand what the different parts of this new affordable care act is all about."

"We will bring plans out when they’re ready, and what we’re hearing from everyone today (Oct. 1) is they are more than happy with that," Budar said.

Some were less than happy.

"Their marketing chief says people don’t need to know what the plans and rates are," Coriell said. "What does he think he’s doing, just selling the concept of the Connector? That was the game last summer. Now it’s time to produce a product."

States nationwide have had trouble enrolling people on the new marketplaces because of computer glitches and the sheer volume of inquiries, but consumers in most states running their own exchanges are at least able to find out the price they would pay for various plans, said Rosemarie Day, president of Day Health Strategies, who was involved in establishing the nation’s first health insurance exchange in Massachusetts in 2006.

"A lot of other state exchanges were actually trying to downplay expectations because they were worried," she said. "Other places were erring on the side of lowering expectations and having people be pleasantly surprised. Some of the states were starting to say a month ago, ‘We’re not going to have all this ready,’ then maybe it turned out better."

States and the federal government have spent millions of dollars urging people to enroll on the new marketplaces nationwide, where small companies and individuals who buy their own insurance or have no coverage can compare premiums for different plans, calculate subsidies and purchase policies.

The federal government is operating exchanges in 34 states that chose not to run their own marketplaces — the only place consumers and small businesses can apply for tax credits to reduce the cost of health insurance. Large businesses are not affected by the changes under the health reform law.

"How is it that with over two years and $258 million, they can’t have a system ready to roll?" said Tim Lyons, executive director of the Hawaii Business League, which represents 900 small and midsize employers. "They could have given some business, even a small business, six months and only a couple of million and they would be ready."

Consumers have until Dec. 15 to enroll in policies that take effect Jan. 1, so "it’s not time to press the panic button," Day said. Open enrollment runs through March.

The federal law, designed to make coverage affordable to all, requires most Americans to have health insurance next year or face tax penalties of $95 or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater. The penalties rise each year thereafter.