WASHINGTON — and online insurance marketplaces in more than a dozen states, including Colorado, opened for a second year Saturday without the computer troubles that frustrated consumers and the Obama administration when the exchanges debuted 13 months ago.
At libraries, health centers and community hubs around the country, people shopping for health plans — and a small army of enrollment workers and volunteers — found that the website for the federal marketplace generally worked and that a federal call center for advice had little or no waiting time.
Not all customers had smooth experiences. Some had forgotten their passwords for online accounts created a year ago. Others discovered that they still couldn’t find affordable plans. And one state-run exchange — Washington state’s — took down its enrollment system within hours of its launch after discovering it was spitting out incorrect subsidy amounts.
But as opening day unfolded for the second sign-up period under the Affordable Care Act, it became clear that the technical flaws that dominated the start of last year had faded.
This gave way to new questions: Can the administration persuade 7.1 million people already insured through the marketplaces to shop again for a 2015 health plan that might suit them better? And can more than 20 million uninsured Americans, who were eligible for the coverage last time but did not sign up, be coaxed to buy health plans now?
At enrollment centers, people who are uninsured appeared to outnumber existing customers renewing their coverage. Workers said that few consumers were finishing applications in one sitting, with most going home to consider health plans’ prices and benefits.
The second round of the insurance marketplaces began less than 24 hours after federal health officials made public a huge set of data on the premiums of the health plans being sold through the exchanges.
Overall, the monthly premiums are increasing, on average, 7 percent for existing plans that are being sold in the federal marketplace a second year, according to an analysis of the data by The Washington Post.
The existing plans are, on balance, slightly less expensive than new ones being sold through the marketplace for the first time, the analysis shows. But premiums vary across the country.
The average premium for a “silver” plan, the most popular level of coverage, has gone up in 25 states that use the federal marketplace and down in nine states.
On Saturday, Obama administration officials urged consumers to act quickly, pointing out that this year’s open enrollment period will last only three months.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said that about 23,000 people had completed applications for health plans during the first eight hours after opened for enrollments shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday. During the entire first day of enrollment last year, only six people managed to enroll because of serious computer defects.
