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Stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month': Obamacare loses major cheerleader as Consumer Reports mag issues scathing advice
The Obamacare program's flagship website is so error-prone and user-unfriendly that Consumer Reports magazine has thrown up its hands in disgust, advising readers to 'stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can.'
The website's messy launch has been the subject of endless news reports, talk show segments and late-night comedy bits – adding to a full-time congressional inquiry and, now, questions about why Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is refusing to testify on Capitol Hill.
But Consumer Reports, the toaster-testing, TV-rating consumer powerhouse, is on the case.
Before October 1, the magazine was a major booster of President Obama's health insurance overhaul plan, devoting several pages in its latest issue to an optimistic ‘step-by-step guide.' But the print edition was completed weeks before the Obamacare enrollment website actually launched. And once its crashes became the stuff of political and geek-tech legend, the editors told Americans to run away at full speed.
On launch day, the Consumer Reports blog counseled patience.
'If you're planning to use the marketplace to get health insurance for 2014, don't worry if you can't sign up today or even within the next couple of weeks,' read one reassuring message.
A day later, the same blog instructed that 'the best strategy is simply to wait a week or two for the initial traffic to die down.'
'We tried it several times today and never succeeded in getting through.'
On Oct. 8 Consumer Reports headlined an update of the Obamacare website's progress: 'One week in, Healthcare.gov is barely operational.' The magazine's blog continued to recommend that readers 'wait a couple of weeks and hope that the site irons out its many problems.'
By Oct. 10, however, the editors' patience was wearing thin. 'Healthcare.gov is slightly less terrible today,' they wrote.
'The bad news,' the Consumer Reports blogger wrote, 'is that it’s still next to impossible to create a user name and password that you can actually use to sign in. I myself have tried five times without success. Our readers report similar frustrations.'
The only silver lining the magazine could find was a note that 'consumers coming to Healthcare.gov are no longer stopped cold by an error message or a screen saying they’ve been put in a waiting line.'
The bottom-line guidance? 'Don’t bother even trying for another couple of weeks.'
In search of 'tips on how to get past the roadblocks,' Consumer Reports turned to a professional software tester for his advice, a four-point plan that involves ignoring the site's error messages and clearing browser 'cookies' every time you visit Healthcare.gov.
But 'f all this is too much for you to absorb,' the blog post concludes: follow our previous advice: Stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sumer-Reports-mag-issues-scathing-advice.html
The Obamacare program's flagship website is so error-prone and user-unfriendly that Consumer Reports magazine has thrown up its hands in disgust, advising readers to 'stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can.'
The website's messy launch has been the subject of endless news reports, talk show segments and late-night comedy bits – adding to a full-time congressional inquiry and, now, questions about why Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is refusing to testify on Capitol Hill.
But Consumer Reports, the toaster-testing, TV-rating consumer powerhouse, is on the case.
Before October 1, the magazine was a major booster of President Obama's health insurance overhaul plan, devoting several pages in its latest issue to an optimistic ‘step-by-step guide.' But the print edition was completed weeks before the Obamacare enrollment website actually launched. And once its crashes became the stuff of political and geek-tech legend, the editors told Americans to run away at full speed.
On launch day, the Consumer Reports blog counseled patience.
'If you're planning to use the marketplace to get health insurance for 2014, don't worry if you can't sign up today or even within the next couple of weeks,' read one reassuring message.
A day later, the same blog instructed that 'the best strategy is simply to wait a week or two for the initial traffic to die down.'
'We tried it several times today and never succeeded in getting through.'
On Oct. 8 Consumer Reports headlined an update of the Obamacare website's progress: 'One week in, Healthcare.gov is barely operational.' The magazine's blog continued to recommend that readers 'wait a couple of weeks and hope that the site irons out its many problems.'
By Oct. 10, however, the editors' patience was wearing thin. 'Healthcare.gov is slightly less terrible today,' they wrote.
'The bad news,' the Consumer Reports blogger wrote, 'is that it’s still next to impossible to create a user name and password that you can actually use to sign in. I myself have tried five times without success. Our readers report similar frustrations.'
The only silver lining the magazine could find was a note that 'consumers coming to Healthcare.gov are no longer stopped cold by an error message or a screen saying they’ve been put in a waiting line.'
The bottom-line guidance? 'Don’t bother even trying for another couple of weeks.'
In search of 'tips on how to get past the roadblocks,' Consumer Reports turned to a professional software tester for his advice, a four-point plan that involves ignoring the site's error messages and clearing browser 'cookies' every time you visit Healthcare.gov.
But 'f all this is too much for you to absorb,' the blog post concludes: follow our previous advice: Stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sumer-Reports-mag-issues-scathing-advice.html