A majority of visitors to the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchange websites went out of curiosity, not to shop for insurance, according to findings released Monday from Pew Research Center.
Fifty-eight percent said they went to the websites to learn more about the exchanges, while 32 percent said they were browsing for options for either themselves or their families. Twenty-two percent of those who are uninsured said they have already visited the websites, and another 42 percent said they intend to visit.
Obama administration officials told the Associated Press that about 476,000 applications have been filed through the federal or state exchanges, but the White House remains cagey about actual enrollment figures.
The rocky rollout of HealthCare.gov has emerged as a focal point in recent weeks, something that President Barack Obama acknowledged Monday during an address in the Rose Garden.
According to Pew, 56 percent of the visitors found the website very or fairly easy to use compared with 40 percent who said it was very or fairly difficult to use. Forty-six percent of all Americans said the online health exchanges are not working well, compared with 29 percent who said they are.
