Even though the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that the federally facilitated website is operating much better than it did when it was first rolled out in October, that's not something that many consumers who don't have employee benefits believe is accurate based on their experience.
According to a recent survey performed by polling firm Gallup, among uninsured respondents who said that they'd visited HealthCare.gov or a state-based exchange, nearly 60 percent said that they went away from it feeling unsatisfied with the services rendered. Just under 40 percent, meanwhile, said that they had a positive experience.
The poll was performed in the month of December, two full months following the initial rollout of the federal and state-based insurance exchanges, both of which were mired with glitches that led to few people signing up for health policies. Prior to the launch, federal officials set a target of 7 million people being enrolled by March 31.
"The fact that most uninsured Americans who have visited the exchanges report a negative experience is problematic, particularly given the Obama administration's efforts to improve the federal sites," researchers for Gallup stated. " If uninsured Americans continue to have bad experiences with the exchanges, it could hinder the Obama administration's goal to insure as many Americans as possible."
The White House recently released statistics indicating that more than 2 million people had signed up for a health plan through the exchanges. A considerable number of them took place in the month of December. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said that this serves as a confirmation that the websites are performing better, as visitors are running into fewer error messages.
