Newly released documents show that just 248 people nationwide managed to enroll in health insurance through HealthCare.gov in the first two days of its launch, CBS News reported Thursday.
Notes from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ “war room” meetings, which were released by the House Oversight Committee, said just “six enrollments” had occurred by the morning of Oct. 2, the day after the website’s launch and subsequent crash.
By the end of that day the notes reflected “248 enrollments” nationwide, according to CBS.
The “war room” notes posted by CBS also revealed some of the technical problems affecting customers’ ability to enroll. Those issues included direct enrollment “not working for any issuers,” the Experian credit reporting agency “creating confusion with credit check information” and issuer phone numbers “not appearing correctly on the Pay Now page.”
Following the botched launch, the Department of Health and Human Services said nearly three million people visited the federal health insurance marketplace on its first day. An HHS spokesman told CBS that it’s not in a position to confirm enrollment figures because the department doesn’t yet have any, but suggested the “war room” notes didn’t take into account alternative methods of enrollment like paper applications.
