I don't know if you noticed last week, but we had another — what I'd call a passive — delay. The administration pushed back its deadline for publishing carrier plan offerings on the federal exchanges.
This appears to be more of a reflection of a technical issue more than anything else. And, as we've reported before, it's a clear, if subtle, indication that the biggest obstacle to the exchanges will be technical rather than political. And no one is talking about it, which worries me even more since nearly everyone I've talked to expects more people to sign up for the exchanges online than via any other medium.
And if the people who actually need to sign up, and actually know about it, try to sign up online and are met with a crashed web page blaring "404 Error," who's to say they'll keep trying? My bet is they'll give up right there and then. It'll be like watching a video on AOL back in the early 90s: just not worth the trouble. Which begs the question, what's the backup plan?
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.