A lot of emphasis has been put on the October 1st date as the day the federally-mandated health insurance exchanges go live, and there's starting to be a lot of noise made about whether the exchanges will be ready. The recent decision by the Feds to delay their final agreements with insurers is just one indication of the technical glitches that we are likely to see once the exchanges are open for business.
But, the real key date is January, the date exchange-purchased insurance will go into effect. For any consumer planing to shop through an exchange to take advantage of Federal premium subsidies, there's no more need to rush out to your state's exchange on October 1st than there is to rush out and buy your Halloween costume the first day that pop-up Halloween shop opens down the block (which, in my town, was sometime in July).
When I used to manage web systems overseeing open enrollment for large employers, we would see the two biggest spikes in traffic when open enrollment first began and right before it ended--usually for the first 3 to 5 days, as all the early birds piled in to select their benefits for the next year, and then for the last 3 or so days as all the procrastinators finally responded to the repeated reminders from the HR department and logged in to select their plans.
Based on what we know so far, consumers would be well advised to wait a few weeks after the exchanges open in October to check them out. Sometime around Thanksgiving might even be ideal. But, don't wait until after Christmas. The end of the year laggards may well bog the systems and make the experience downright painful.
But, the real key date is January, the date exchange-purchased insurance will go into effect. For any consumer planing to shop through an exchange to take advantage of Federal premium subsidies, there's no more need to rush out to your state's exchange on October 1st than there is to rush out and buy your Halloween costume the first day that pop-up Halloween shop opens down the block (which, in my town, was sometime in July).
When I used to manage web systems overseeing open enrollment for large employers, we would see the two biggest spikes in traffic when open enrollment first began and right before it ended--usually for the first 3 to 5 days, as all the early birds piled in to select their benefits for the next year, and then for the last 3 or so days as all the procrastinators finally responded to the repeated reminders from the HR department and logged in to select their plans.
Based on what we know so far, consumers would be well advised to wait a few weeks after the exchanges open in October to check them out. Sometime around Thanksgiving might even be ideal. But, don't wait until after Christmas. The end of the year laggards may well bog the systems and make the experience downright painful.
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