DENVER—Colorado’s health exchange website was overwhelmed by volume on its first day and is advising consumers they can’t create more accounts under the Affordable Care Act until further notice.
The Connect for Health Colorado website is where consumers without insurance can buy plans. It ran a banner encouraging visitors on Tuesday to keep browsing until its full services are restored.
Connect for Health spokesman Ben Davis tells The Denver Post ( ) that consumers had created 1,000 accounts early Tuesday before new accounts were suspended.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
Colorado opens its health insurance marketplace Tuesday after more than two years of planning.
Architects of Colorado’s health exchange hope it’s a quiet first day.
Connect For Health Colorado, and all state exchanges, opened for business Tuesday morning. It was the big rollout for the federal health care law.
Customers who need health insurance will be able to use the site to find out what their choices are, what their premiums will be and whether they qualify for subsidies to reduce their payments.
Colorado had 180 people working a call center in Colorado Springs Tuesday to help customers through the process. They weren’t expecting a flood of customers. Coverage doesn’t start until January, and people without health insurance have until the end of the year to sign up.
“I think it’s going to be a fairly quiet rollout,” said Dr. Michael Fallon, a Denver emergency room physician who serves on Connect For Health’s board.
Exchange officials in every state were braced for glitches, though.
Already Colorado’s exchange has said that the website won’t be fully functional for the first month. Customers will have to call for help applying for government subsidies, instead of completing the whole transaction online.
And there were rumors of emails asking health law critics to jam call centers with bogus calls to gum up the rollout. Reporters weren’t invited to Colorado’s call center Tuesday, though a spokesman for the exchange planned to update reporters throughout the day on traffic numbers and any problems with the first day.
Connect for Health Colorado CEO Patty Fontneau planned a Tuesday afternoon update.
Colorado officials insisted the state wouldn’t be affected by any potential federal shutdown prompted by a congressional stalemate over the health law. Colorado is one of 17 states that opted to create its own exchange, rather than rely on the federal government to run it.
President Barack Obama said Monday that a shutdown wouldn’t affect implementation of the health law in any state. Most of the law’s funding does not come from annual appropriations.
“That funding is already in place. You can’t shut it down,” Obama said.
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