Indiana’s federally run marketplace at www.healthcare.gov is scheduled to be running on Oct. 1, but don’t be shocked if it’s not fully functional on Day 1.
“My personal projection is that the Oct. 1 start will be a rocky one,” said Chris Schrader, president of Schrader and Associates in Bloomington and an expert on the Affordable Care Act. “The federal government has said it will not test the electronic system to work out any possible bugs until Sept. 30, the day before it needs to be up and running. I’m very concerned about that.”
Schrader said in most cases, a company would test a new interactive website well in advance of the roll-out date. “Something of this size and scope should have been de-bugged six months ago,” he said. “What they’re doing is very risky. I really hope when they flip the switch on Oct. 1, everything works like a charm and when people click on icons they don’t get an hourglass spinning endlessly around, but I have my doubts.”
Schrader said if there are functional problems with the site, people can go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services site at www.hhs.gov to print out paper applications, then fill them out and mail them in.
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