White House says fix to Obamacare website "on track" as deadline looms

English>>World

Editor's Pick

White House says fix to Obamacare website "on track" as deadline looms

(Xinhua) 08:23, November 26, 2013

Email|Print|Comments

twitter

facebook

Sina Microblog

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 -- The White House said Monday that the efforts to fix the flawed website of a healthcare reform centerpiece remain "on track" as a self-imposed deadline is looming.

"We continue to be on track to meeting the goals that we established for ourselves and established for the website on Nov. 30," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said aboard Air Force One en route to San Francisco for an event President Barack Obama is expected to attend.

Earnest admitted that repeatedly failing to log on the error- ridden website was frustrating for people but he promised the improvement would "significantly enhance the consumer experience on the website."

The tech team that is working on the website has already strengthened its capacity to a level of 50,000 "concurrent users," he noted.

The Obama administration has vowed to fix HealthCare.gov, the broken website of an online insurance marketplace, by the end of this month. The marketplace serves as a centerpiece of Obama's signature healthcare overhaul aiming to get more uninsured Americans coverage.

The website has undergone failures since its debut on Oct. 1 and was almost out of service during the first two weeks of operation. Many consumers have reported difficulty of signing up and getting enrolled.

Federal officials said earlier that only about 106,000 people signed up for coverage in the online marketplace under the Obamacare in its first month. The figure is well below the administration's expectations to enroll 500,000 people by the end of October.

（Editor：LiangJun、Zhang Qian）