According to a new report in the WSJ, the government's software that is supposed to determine how much people need to pay for coverage can't. Government officials and insurers are working furiously to fix the bugs in the software to avoid alienating the initial wave of consumers. The glitch or bug affects consumers in 36 states where the federal government is running all or part of the exchanges. About 32 million uninsured people live in those states. The remaining 14 states are running separate marketplaces with their own software. One of those states, Oregon, has its own software bugs which will make consumers enroll offline till the problem is fixed. Four people familiar with the development of the software said it was still miscalculating prices. Software testing was initially scheduled to begin months ago but only started this week at some insurers. "There's a blanket acknowledgment that rates are being calculated incorrectly," said one senior health-insurance executive who asked not to be named. "Our tech and operations people are very concerned about the problems they're seeing and the potential of them to stick around." People may still be able to sign up offline, even if the online exchanges aren't fully functional at first, several insurers said. And consumers have until mid-December to sign up for policies that start on Jan. 1. The enrollment period continues through next March, and many analysts expect consumers to wait until they can use the coverage before they enroll. Despite all the bugs and delays in the law, the Obama administration says open enrollment will begin Oct. 1 on schedule. "We may encounter some bumps when open enrollment begins but we'll solve them," said Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, one of the main offices within Medicare charged with developing the exchanges, in congressional testimony on Thursday. This is just the latest problem with the law. Previously Obama delayed the employer mandate and people are losing their current doctor and health insurance thanks to the laws. Premiums are going for many Americans across the country. And the administration also delayed the cap on out of picket spending. Even short-lived problems with the exchanges could be a setback for the Obama administration and supporters of the law. Already, some requirements in the law, such as a mandate that large employers offer workers insurance and limits on consumers' annual out-of-pocket spending, have been delayed, with officials citing administrative and technological hurdles. The calculator application is being developed by the government contractor CGI Group Inc. CGI has won more than $88 million in government contracts to build the exchanges through next March, the largest amount of any contractor, according to the GAO report. Donald Meyer, a public-relations executive representing CGI, declined to comment on behalf of his client. Some health plans said an earlier set of problems involving incorrect plan details, such as the amount of copays for certain services, had been largely resolved following testing of the software. Molina Health Care Inc., which is planning to offer commercial health plans in seven states with federally run exchanges, "experienced a variety of challenges completing that testing, but we worked closely [with the federal health agency] to resolve the issues," said Laura Hart, a spokeswoman. Hart said testing of the calculator feature hasn't yet been completed in six states but went well in one. Martin Hickey, chief executive of New Mexico Health Connections, a consumer-operated health plan created by the health law, said that when his staff got its first look at the system that displays plan details about a month ago, there were a lot of errors, but he said they have since been fixed.

• published: 20 Sep 2013
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