• By

  • JOSH DAWSEY


Thousands of New Yorkers struggled Tuesday as they sought to use a balky new website that hosts the state's new health-insurance exchange, but officials pledged to fix the bugs and took heart that the site received unexpectedly high traffic on its first day.





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Health-care outreach workers Jacqueline Sanchez, left, and Zulma Lamela talk about health insurance at a diner in Jersey City, N.J., on Tuesday.






"We haven't been able to make it available to every New Yorker who came to the web," said Donna Frescatore, director of New York's exchange, adding that many did gain access to the exchange.


The state's online marketplace, which opened for business as enrollment for insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act began around the U.S., was receiving upgrades to handle more traffic late Tuesday, Ms. Frescatore said. The website recorded more than 10 million hits, while about 9,000 people were able to shop. The site counts every hit, regardless of whether someone was able to get onto the site, a spokesman said.


Albany officials couldn't immediately provide a count of how many New Yorkers signed up. The debut of the website was just one aspect of the rollout of the state health-insurance exchange. The state held events at offices of local community groups and health centers, where counselors were deployed to sign people up. New York hopes to enroll 1.1 million people within three years. The enrollment period lasts until Dec. 31.







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Patients sat in a waiting room at Urban Health Plan in the Bronx on Oct. 1.








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Health-care 'navigators' Karina Santos, left, and Maria Morales talk to prospective subscriber Olga Arroyo at Urban Health Plan in the Bronx.





"This is going to be a slow ramp-up," said Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez, chief executive at Urban Health Plan, a Bronx clinic that worked Tuesday to sign people up.


The state is spending $40 million on outreach and marketing as it contends with language and cultural barriers and that many residents don't know about the program.


"There's going to be a lot of confusion this week, and with the first couple months of the rollout," said James Napoli, an expert on the law who is senior counsel with the Washington law firm Proskauer Rose. "That's just a fundamental failing of the rollout right now. I just don't think there has been enough education of the general public to what the fundamentals are."


In New Jersey, where users enrolled as part of the federal exchange after Gov. Chris Christie declined to create a state-run exchange, Jersey City officials gathered around in an office Tuesday, trying to load software. Stacey Flanagan, director of the city's health amd human services department, said she had two successes in 41 attempts at logging on.


The federal government said its systems had encountered problems as it served "unexpectedly high" volume but that the system worked for many people. In New Jersey, a spokeswoman for the state's department of health said it wasn't monitoring the exchange. The state licensed the health insurers and reviewed the rates, "but otherwise it's their marketplace," said a spokesman for the state Banking and Insurance Department.


As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, 167 people had successfully signed up for coverage on Connecticut's exchange, and the website site received 28,280 unique visitors. The call center also fielded 1,930 phone calls. "Today was not without its bumps, but as far as launches go for a project of this size, we were pleased," said Kevin Counihan, CEO of Access Health CT, in a news release.


In New York, Ms. Frescatore said she saw promising signs. The state's customer-service center received more than 5,000 calls. Most of the calls were residents asking whether they qualified for plans or state tax credits to help them afford coverage, she said.



At Queens Central Library in Jamaica on Tuesday morning, resident Carmen Quintuna said she had been uninsured since 2008 and would buy insurance next week on the state exchange. "I was constantly worried about getting sick or hurt because I knew I couldn't afford any medication or treatment," she said.


Outside the Urban Health Plan in the Bronx, workers struggled to enroll people Tuesday. At least for one morning, media cameras and state officials outnumbered potential enrollees. Under the new system, lower-income New Yorkers would qualify for tax credits and subsidies to help them afford health insurance. Several people said they didn't understand the law or didn't qualify. Carmen Colon, 41, who was at the agency with her son, Rayden, 9, said she had "way too many questions" to make a decision. "They haven't been able to explain how it really works," she said.


Ms. Colon said she paid for insurance through her job and wasn't sure if the new plan would be cheaper, even with tax credits and subsidies.She left the clinic Tuesday without signing up.


In New Jersey, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said the town's 55,000 uninsured would be targeted by 10 city workers. They canvassed streets with tablet computers Tuesday, where they greeted diners outside a Thai restaurant.


The city is "frustrated and challenged" by the state not embracing the law, Mr. Fulop said.


Ellen Broudy, 38 years old, called the law a "pocket changer." The freelance graphic designer said she paid more than $5,000 per month for insurance and expected that will be bill would be slashed. "I just dropped a ton of money on health insurance. I don't even want to think about how much I spent."


—Joseph De Avila, Heather Haddon and John Surico contributed to this article.

Write to Josh Dawsey at joshua.dawsey@wsj.com


A version of this article appeared October 2, 2013, on page A15 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Health Exchange's Birth Pangs.



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